Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Cottus gobio Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Cottus gobio Linnaeus, 1758 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body naked except for a small patch of prickles under pectoral fin. Pelvic fins short, reaching to anus at most, innermost finray long. more than half length of outer finray. D (VI) VII-VIII (IX) + (13) 16- 18 (19); A (10) 11-14 (15): P (12) 13-15. Lateral line midlateral, to base of caudal fin, with 30 pores. Colour: very variable, back usually dark brown, heavily mottled, sometimes with distinct bars on flanks. paler ventrally: all fins except pelvics with irregular light lines. Size: to 20.7 cm SL. usually 8-10 cm.
Habitat: benthic on hard bottoms (under stones) in streams, rivers andlakes with moderate or weak currents, down to 9 m, rarely in brackishcoastal waters. Food: small bottom invertebrates, chiefly insects (Ephemeroptera nymphs, larvae of Plecoptera and Trichoptera), crustaceans (amphipods, gammarids, crayfishes), also eggs and larvae of fishes. Reproduction: spawns March June; eggs about a few hundreds, less than 2.5 mm diameter, laid on undersides of stones, guarded by males until hatched after about 4 weeks.
Distribution: brackish waters along coasts of Gulfs of Bothnia, Finland and Riga, and in estuaries of large rivers. Elsewhere, freshwaters of Europe (except Spain, much of Italy, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Jutland and northern Norway, Sweden and Finland).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Sundevall, 1855: 6, pl. I (fig. 1-4) | Ehrenbaum, 1905: 54-55, fig. 21.
Otoliths (sagitta). Tylova, 1927: 1, fig. 36 38 (S, A, L) | Frost, 1929b: 261, pl. III (fig. 22) | Chaine and Duvergier, 1934: 147, pl. IV | Bauzá-Rullán, 1957: 38, pl. II (fig. 20-24).