Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Gobius paganellus Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Gobius paganellus Linnaeus, 1758 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: lateral line system with sub-orbital row d in two parts and transverse rows 2 and 3 sometimes ending near orbit; row x3 ending anteriorly behind pore b; and pore a on short side-branch from oculoscapular canal along lower border of orbit. Nape scaled; cheek sometimes scaled in upper rear corner. Anterior nostril with digitate process. Pectoral free rays well developed, reaching to or near first dorsal origin, especially in small examples. Pelvic disc rounded, anterior membrane sometimes with small lateral lobes. Dl VI; D2 I + 13-14 (12-15); A I + 11-12 (10-13); P 21-22 (18-23). Scales in lateral series 50-55 (46-59). Vertebrae 28. Colour: fawn with dark mottling and lateral blotches, to dark brown; upper margin of first dorsal fin with pale band, rear corner with dark blue spot in juveniles; breeding males deep purplish brown, with first dorsal band yellow to orange. Size: to 12 cm.
Habitat: inshore and intertidal, under stones and in pools on sheltered rocky shores with much weed cover. Food: crustaceans (larger amphipods, isopods, small crabs) and polychaetes, in adults; juveniles eat harpacticoid copepods, amphipods, polychaetes and mites. Reproduction: January-June (Naples), April-June (Isle of Man, Irish Sea), March to mid-May (Varna, Black Sea); repeat spawning. Eggs fusiform, with bluntly pointed apex, 2.2-2.6 (1.84-3.0) mm, in patches of up to several thousand (110-140 per sq cm), on undersurface of stones, shells, polychaete tubes or Ciona mantles. Development time about 20 days, hatch at 3.6-4.8 mm. metamorphosing at 9.5-10.5 mm. Fecundity 1,054-8,978 at SL 4.85-8.8 cm. Sexually mature at 2-3 years. Lifespan: to 10 years Hybridization: with Gobius cobitis (Pinchuk and Strautman, 1978).
Distribution: eastern Atlantic, from western Scotland to tropical West Africa (Senegal), including oceanic islands; Mediterranean and Black Sea (except north-west). Gulf of Eilat, Red Sea (lessepsian migrant).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Holt, 1890: 37, pl. 2 (fig. 3-6) | Raffaele, 1898: 330 | Holt and Byrne, 1898: 335 | Holt, 1899b: 43 | Lo Bianco, 1909: 718 | Hefford, 1910: 48, pl. 1 (fig. 7) | Ehrenbaum, 1915: 94 | Fage, 1918: 89 | Lebour, 1919: 71, pl. 4 (fig. 1-23) | Sparta, 1934a: 1, fig. 1-6 | Miller, 1961a: 753.
Otoliths (sagitta). Shepherd, 1910b: 295, pl. I (fig. 5) | Miller, 1961a: 769, pl. I (fig. 1-6).