The grass goby (''Zosterisessor ophiocephalus'') 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 native to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

, the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov ( Crimean Tatar: ''Azaq deñizi''; russian: Азовское море, Azovskoye more; uk, Азовське море, Azovs'ke more) is a sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, ...

and 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, Roma ...

. It is currently the only known member of its

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Characteristics

Grass gobies can grow up to long. The head crown, nape, throat, belly, and bases of the pectoral fins are covered by

cycloid scale 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 w ...

s and the

gill A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

covers are naked. The abdominal sucker has no blades and does not reach the

anus The anus (Latin, 'ring' or 'circle') is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, the residual semi-solid waste that remains after food digestion, which, d ...

. The mandibulae are protrusive, and the skin soft, with mucus. Their coloration is green-brown, patterned with merging brown spots. The cheeks have round light spots. The dorsal,

caudal Caudal may refer to: Anatomy * Caudal (anatomical term) (from Latin ''cauda''; tail), used to describe how close something is to the trailing end of an organism * Caudal artery, the portion of the dorsal aorta of a vertebrate that passes into the ...

, and pectoral fins have longitudinal brown stripes on a light background; the anal and abdominal suckers are dark.

Range

Widespread in coastal waters of all

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

s of the

Mediterranean basin In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and w ...

, they are especially numerous in the northern

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

, Venetian Lagoon, and Sète Lagoon (

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) and in the

near all coasts, especially in

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 and

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 environment ...

of the north-west,

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city in Bulgaria **Varna Province **Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna **Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis *Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy *Varniai, a city in Lithuania * Varna (Šaba ...

and

Burgas Bay Gulf of Burgas or Burgas Bay ( bg, Бургаски залив, ''Burgaski zaliv'') between the coastline and the straight line joining Cape Emine and Cape Maslen nos is the largest bay of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and one of the largest in th ...

, and

Sivash The Syvash or Sivash (Russian and Ukrainian: ; , Cyrillic: Сываш, "dirt"), also known as the or (, ''Gniloye More''; , ''Hnyle More''; , Cyrillic: Чюрюк Денъиз), is a large area of shallow lagoons on the west coast of the Sea ...

Feeding

Until age two, grass gobies feed only on

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s, after which they start to eat fish. In

Tuzly Lagoons Tuzly Lagoons ( ua, Тузловські лимани, ro, Limanele Tuzlei) are a group of marine lagoons (liman (landform), limans) in southern Bessarabia (Budjak), Ukraine. The lagoons are part of the Tuzly Lagoons National Nature Park, proclai ...

, they first feed on

gammarids Gammaridae is a family of amphipods. In North America they are included among the folk taxonomic category of " scuds", and otherwise gammarids is usually used as a common name. They have a wide distribution, centered on Eurasia, and are eury ...

Gammarus lacustris ''Gammarus lacustris'' is an aquatic amphipod. Description ''Gammarus lacustris'' is semi-transparent and lacks a webbed tail. It may be colorless, brown, reddish or bluish in color, depending on the local environment. It has seven abdominal segm ...

'' (94%), and ''

Idotea balthica ''Idotea balthica'' is a species of marine isopod which lives on seaweed and seagrass in the subtidal zone of rocky shores and sandy lagoons. Distribution ''Idotea balthica'' has a broad geographical distribution, having been recorded from the ...

'' (6%) followed by fish like the

big-scale sand smelt The big-scale sand smelt (''Atherina boyeri'') is a species of fish in the family Atherinidae. It is a euryhaline amphidromous fish, up to 20 cm in length. Description It is a small pelagic fish species which occurs near the surface in the ...

(30%) and gobies (36%).

Shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

Palaemon adspersus ''Palaemon adspersus'', commonly called Baltic prawn, is a species of shrimp that is frequent in the Baltic Sea, and is the subject of fisheries in Denmark. It is up to long, and lives in ''Zostera'' beds. Description ''Palaemon adspersus'' is ...

'' also play an important role.

Parasites

About 27

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

are known from the grass goby near the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

n coasts. The

acanthocephalans Acanthocephala (Greek , ', thorn + , ', head) is a phylum of parasitic worms known as acanthocephalans, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an eversible proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to p ...

''Acanthocephaloides propinquus'' are most numerous. In the northwestern Black Sea, this fish has 13 parasite species. Except for the aforementioned ''A. propinquus'', another acanthocephalan, '' Telosentis exiguus'', is very numerous. Both are Mediterranean immigrants as is their

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman * Michel Host ...

, the grass goby. Also, the Ponto-Caspian

cestode Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, known as tapeworms. Their bodies consist of man ...

s ''Proteocephalus gobiorum'' and

monogenea Monogeneans are a group of ectoparasitic flatworms commonly found on the skin, gills, or fins of fish. They have a direct lifecycle and do not require an intermediate host. Adults are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reprod ...

ns ''Gyrodactylus proterorhini'' were very numerous. In the

Budaki Lagoon Budaki, or Budaksky Lagoon (other names: Shabolatsky Liman, Shabolat, Budaksky Liman; uk, Будацький лиман, Шаболат, ro, Limanul Budachi, Şabolat) is a Black Sea lagoon (liman (landform), liman) in Bessarabia, southern Ukrai ...

, the grass goby is a host of

larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

of epizootic

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...

''Streptocara crassicauda''.

Importance

The grass goby is a dietary item for some commercial fishes, such as the

toad goby ''Mesogobius batrachocephalus'', the knout goby or toad goby, is one of the species of gobiid fish native to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov basins. It lives in estuaries and brackish water lagoons, occasionally in fresh waters, such as the co ...

. In the

, it is used for food by the harbour porpoise.Ilyin B.S. (1949) Kratkiy obzor chernomorskih bychkov (Pisces, Gobiidae). Buleten MOIP (Otd. Biol.), 54(3): 16-30. (in Russian) The grass goby is a commercial fish in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, the Molochnyi Estuary,

, and in the

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q10395352, from2=Q745561

grass goby The grass goby (''Zosterisessor ophiocephalus'') is a species of goby native to the Mediterranean Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. It is currently the only known member of its genus. Characteristics Grass gobies can grow up to long. The ...

Fish of the Adriatic Sea Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the Black Sea Fish of Europe

Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN