Tidewater Goby
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''Eucyclogobius newberryi'', the Northern tidewater goby, is a
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
goby Goby is a common name for many species of small to medium sized ray-finned fish, normally with large heads and tapered bodies, which are found in marine, brackish and freshwater environments. Traditionally most of the species called gobies have b ...
native to
lagoon 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'') a ...
s of streams,
marshes A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...
, and creeks along the coast of
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, United States. The Northern tidewater goby is one of six native goby species to California.


Etymology

The genus name translates as "true cycloid goby", referring to the scales, while the species epithet is in honor of J. S. Newberry (1822-1892), an
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
, physician and explorer, who collected fishes for the species describer,
Charles Frédéric Girard Charles Frédéric Girard (8 March 1822 – 29 January 1895) was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology. Born in Mulhouse, France, he studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, as a student of Louis Agassiz. In ...
, just not this species.


Description

A small fish, only rarely longer than 5 cm (2 in), the northern tidewater goby is elongate with a blunt tail. Color is a mottled gray, brown, or olive; living fish are translucent or mostly transparent. Tidewater gobies, like many fish, exhibit
countershading Countershading, or Thayer's law, is a method of camouflage in which an animal's coloration is darker on the top or upper side and lighter on the underside of the body. This pattern is found in many species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, and ...
and tend to be mottled slightly darker on the dorsal side. The upper part of the first
dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...
is clear or cream-colored, while the second dorsal is longer than the first, and close in size to the
anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...
. The large mouth extends back to or past the posterior edge of the eye, and is angled upwards. The eyes are spaced far apart. Unusually among gobies, the scales are
cycloid In geometry, a cycloid is the curve traced by a point on a circle as it rolls along a straight line without slipping. A cycloid is a specific form of trochoid and is an example of a roulette, a curve generated by a curve rolling on another curve ...
instead of
ctenoid A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as ...
; they are always absent from the head, and often from the underside too. Breeding individuals will demonstrate color changes, with the males becoming more black with white spots as females become tan or reddish-brown with golden or dark-brown sides. Females may also take on a darker color while fighting. Similar fish include the
longjaw mudsucker The longjaw mudsucker ''Gillichthys mirabilis'' is a goby (Gobiidae) of the Pacific Ocean coast of California and Baja California, noted for its extremely large mouth and ability to survive out of water for short periods. As the common name sugg ...
, which can be distinguished from the northern tidewater goby by its more horizontal mouth and shorter rays in the anal fin compared to the 2nd dorsal fin.


Distribution and habitat

Their range extends from Tillas Slough at the mouth of the Smith River in
Del Norte County, California ), in California , seat_type = County seat , seat = Crescent City , parts_type = Largest city , parts = Crescent City , unit_pref = US , area_total_sq_mi = 1230 , area_land_sq_mi = 1006 , area_water_sq_mi = 223 , elevation_max_footnote ...
, south to Agua Hedionda Lagoon in
San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...
. While once recorded in at least 87 coastal locations, they are now gone from many, including
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
, although they can still be found nearby at
Rodeo Lagoon Rodeo Lagoon is a coastal lagoon located in the Marin Headlands division of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is in southern Marin County, California. This brackish water body is separated from the Pacific Ocean by a sand bar that ...
in Marin County and in
San Pedro Creek San Pedro Creek (Spanish for ''St. Peter'') is a perennial stream in the City of Pacifica, San Mateo County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area whose tributaries originate on Sweeney Ridge in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Mont ...
in Pacifica. Despite the common name, this goby inhabits lagoons formed by streams running into the sea, as well as semi-closed estuaries. The lagoons are blocked from the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
by
sand bar In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It o ...
s, admitting salt water only during particular seasons, and so their water is brackish and cool. The northern tidewater goby prefers salinities of less than 10 ppt. Juveniles have been found as far upstream as 12 km, e.g. in Ten Mile River,
Mendocino County Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish for "of Mendoza) is a county located on the North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,601. The county seat is Ukiah. Mendocino County consists whol ...
, and San Antonio Creek and the
Santa Ynez River The Santa Ynez River is one of the largest rivers on the Central Coast of California. It is long, ArcExplorer GIS data viewer. flowing from east to west through the Santa Ynez Valley, reaching the Pacific Ocean at Surf, near Vandenberg Space Fo ...
,
Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria. Santa Barba ...
, sometimes in sections of stream impounded by California Golden beavers (''Castor canadensis subauratus'') which provide ideal slow-moving water habitat for northern tidewater gobies. These fish also prefer sandy bottoms with depths of 20–100 cm, near emergent vegetation beds. The northern tidewater goby may be found in small groups of less than a dozen or occasionally in large aggregations of hundreds.


Behavior and reproduction

Male northern tidewater gobies burrow into sand and mud in the spring, cementing together grains of sand with a mucous, and shutting the burrow off from the waters above with a mucous and sand plug. Females will become aggressive during the spring and fight over a potential mate, slapping each other with their tails and biting when posturing is insufficient to drive their rivals away. The female will then attempt to entice the male to open his burrow. If the female is successful (which may be infrequent - Camm Swift reports that 23 observed courtships resulted in only a single successful entry into the burrow by the female,) she will lay eggs on the burrow's sides and roof. The male protects the eggs for 9–10 days before they hatch. Although their life expectancy is not well known, tidewater gobies may live for only a year.


Diet

The diet of the adult northern tidewater goby consists mostly of benthic invertebrates and local insects, though their diet's exact composition can vary by season. In some lagoon populations, gobies have been found to feed on seasonally available invasive New Zealand mud snails, reflecting the fish's adaptive foraging behavior to non-native species in its environment.


Conservation status

The northern tidewater goby was listed by the state of California for protection in 1987, and federally listed in 1994. However, there has been some controversy over this, since many populations in its range are apparently secure, and the fish is even abundant at times. However, the fish's need for specific kind of habitat means that the populations are isolated from each other, and subject to extirpation due to various human activities, such as draining of wetlands, sand bar breaches for the purpose of tidal flushing, pollutant accumulation in lagoons, and so forth. Even so, studies have shown that it is a resilient species, and populations have been successfully restored to wetlands that have been protected.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q305713 Gobionellinae Endemic fauna of California ESA endangered species Taxa named by Charles Frédéric Girard Fish described in 1856