Dutch: grondel
Three gobies are common on the North sea shore:
Pomatoschistus minutus minutus (sand goby), Pomatoschistus microps (common goby),
and the black goby (Gobius niger). These are small fishes, living on the sea
shore. Like most bottom (bentic) animals theire eyes are the heighest
point of the body, they have no swimbladder and theire body have acamouflaged
sand color. All fish without a swimbadder sinks slowly to the bottom
when they stop swimming. The goby lives near the shore or in the .
tidepools on the beach or between rocks.
What they eat
These fishes are hunters for worms, small crustaceans, small fish.
In the aquarium they also eat pellet food, I used to give Koi Karper food,
which is mixed with sand. In this way it will sink to the bottom.
Mostly , the sinking pellets are intercepted by the gobies before they
reach the bottom.
Gobies and Shrimps
Gobies live in the same environment and eat the same stuff as shrimps.
Normally gobies spend a lot of time each day quarreling with those shrimps,
about food and about living space. Shrimps are better equipped for these
fights, they usualy win. Goby has better eyes and is faster.
Habitat
These are very strong fishes , like all other inhabitants of the littoral zone.
They have a great resistance against changes in salanity (amount of salt)
and temperature changes. With there eyes above there head ,they are very
sensitiv for movements above them (birds) .
To catch them in a tide pool, you need to be very quick. Youre shadow
alarms them.
living conditions
These are very strong fishes, like all other inhabitants of the littoral zone.
They have a great resistance against changes in salanity and temperature.
To catch them in a tide pool, you need to be very quick.
In the evening like they do a little swimming, the same behavior as flatfish.
Its impossible to be sure about the determination of a goby
from a photo. In about half the cases the determination proofed
to be wrong, so I can only say that this fish looks like
a black goby. The black goby hides itself in a cave, Sand goby
hide itself in the (sand)bottom. Black goby is larger then sandgoby
and common water goby.
enemies of the goby
The enemie comes from above! Seabirds are the biggest enemies.
Those gobies who live in tidepools on the shore have a
dangerous live ,as there no much room in a tide pool
to escape. In sea the flatfish like plaice
are the biggest danger.
the goby body is adapted for a bottom dwelling live
gobies strong point
Like no other fish gobies survive a sudden change in
the amount of salt that the seawater contains. A sudden drop
in the amouny of salt (salanity) occurs during rainfall
A sudden rise in salanity happens when a wave fills a
tidepool that already contains fresh water.