''Mesogobius batrachocephalus'', the knout goby or toad goby, is one of the species of gobiid fish native to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

and the Sea of Azov basins. It lives in

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estu ...

water

lagoons A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

, occasionally in fresh waters, such as the coastal

Lake Siutghiol Siutghiol () is a lagoon on the shores of the Black Sea, in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania. It has a length of and a width of ; it extends over and has a maximum depth of . Ovidiu Island is a small island on the west side of the ...

in Romania. It prefers areas near cliffs with sandy, shelly or rocky substrates at depths of from , sometimes down to . The knout goby is a

piscivore A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that eats primarily fish. The name ''piscivore'' is derived . Piscivore is equivalent to the Greek-derived word ichthyophage, both of which mean "fish eater". Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evoluti ...

. It can reach a length of SL and weight of . Maximum known age is eight years.

References

Mesogobius Fish described in 1814 Fish of the Black Sea Fish of Europe Fish of Western Asia Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Gobiidae-stub