Gobius niger Linnaeus, 1758

Kovačić, Marcelo, Renoult, Julien P., Pillon, Roberto, Svensen, Rudolf, Bogorodsky, Sergey V., Engin, Semih & Louisy, Patrick, 2022, Identification of Mediterranean marine gobies (Actinopterygii: Gobiidae) of the continental shelf from photographs of in situ individuals, Zootaxa 5144 (1), pp. 1-103 : 59-61

Gobius niger Linnaeus, 1758 ( Fig. 56 )—Black Goby

Gobius niger Linnaeus, 1758: 262 ; no type locality.

Size. Known adult size about 15–18 cm total length.

Morphology. D V–VII + I,11–13; A I,10–13; P 15–20. Large goby with a relatively stocky body, proportionately large head with a short and steep snout. Caudal peduncle deep, almost as deep as body. The first dorsal fin higher or about equal to the second, mature males with long and pointed fin with elongated spines (third and fourth spines longest). Pectoral-fin free rays moderately developed. Caudal fin rounded. Rows of sensory papillae well developed and clearly visible on the nape. Scales present on body and on predorsal area, usually visible in photographs at least on body (Miller 1986).

Live coloration. Body ground coloration variable, usually light cream or gray, sometimes greenish ( Fig. 56a & 56b ), to black in nesting males ( Fig. 56c ). In light-colored individuals, the body has dark mottling on the back, 5 or 6 black midlateral blotches and becomes white ventrally with few scattered black dots. Head with a white preorbital bar and a black suborbital bar, lips mottled dark gray or brown. Oculoscapular line limited to three inconspicuous black or brown dashes. Membrane of first dorsal fin light blue-green, or light gray, or light reddish (blackish in nesting males) in the distal half, reddish with 3 irregular white horizontal bands in the proximal half. One black blotch often visible distally on the first membrane of each dorsal fin or just on the first dorsal fin ( Fig. 56a ); rarely a black spot is visible at the lower posterior corner of the first dorsal fin. Sensory papillae black and well visible on the nape ( Renoult et al. 2022).

Similar species. Gobius roulei , G. couchi .

Habitat. Infralittoral and circalittoral species known from 1–96 m depth, mostly on sheltered or muddy soft bottoms and coastal lagoons (Miller 1986; Patzner 2021).

Geographic distribution. Northeastern Atlantic, from the Baltic Sea to Canary Islands and in the whole Mediterranean (Miller 1986), the Black Sea ( Tserkova et al. 2016) and the Sea of Azov (Miller 1986) .

Figures

FIGURE 56. Live coloration in its natural habitat of Gobius niger. A) Usual coloration, photo by S.V. Bogorodsky, Turkey, Aegean Sea. B) Male with erected enlarged first dorsal fin, photo by P. Louisy, Thau Lagoon, Southern France. C) Dark male during reproduction, photo by R. Svensen, Stavanger, Norway.