Goby Goby

The largest body length of males is 16.1 cm, females 13.3 cm. Life expectancy up to 4-5 years. The body is elongated, low, barely compressed laterally. The front part of the back of the head to the level of the preoperculum, the gill cover, chest, the base of the pectoral fins and partially the belly are bare, not covered with scales. The head is relatively short, at eye level its height is equal to or slightly greater than the width. The snout is rounded. The mouth is relatively small. The upper lip is thickened, the height is the same everywhere, the lower jaw ends at the level of the anterior quarter of the eye. The abdominal disc always reaches the anal opening or comes into it. The second dorsal fin is the same throughout. Adult fish do not have a bladder. The general background color is grayish-brownish or grayish, light on the ventral side. On the back and sides are paired, directed obliquely from top to bottom and forward, 8-12 dark brownish stripes-spots, on the head above and on the sides there are meandering dark stripes. Dorsal fins with several longitudinal dark stripes and rows of brownish speckles ^[5] .

Distribution of the species: basins of the Black , Azov , Caspian seas ^[5] .

It lives along all the desalinated coastal sections of the Black Sea from the Danube to the Dnieper and in its estuaries, as well as in the Danube , Dniester , Southern Bug , Dnieper and Seversky Donets basins , was recorded in the Yagorlitsky , Tendrovsky and Karkinitsky bays, near Karadag and Kerch. It lives in the Sea of ​​Azov and its estuaries, as well as in estuaries and, partly, in the lower reaches of the rivers of the North Azov Sea , it is known from some rivers of Crimea ^[5] .

Freshwater brackish fish. Biology is not well understood. Bottom residential fish that lives in rivers, as well as in shallow areas of the sea and estuaries. It holds places with silted sandy, finely rocky or shell soil at depths of up to 2-5 m in rivers and up to 16 m in the sea. They reach puberty at the age of two years. Reproduction in April-June. Portion spawning , takes place at a water temperature of 9-20 ° С (peak in May at 16-17 ° С) in coastal areas with dense silty-sandy soil and placers of stones and shell lime. The male equips and protects the nest, in which several females lay their eggs. At a water temperature of 20 ° C, larvae hatch from eggs two weeks after fertilization. It feeds on crustaceans , worms, mollusks , insect larvae, small fish and their eggs ^[5] .