Bucchich's goby

Description

Bucchich's goby is a small, sand-coloured goby of the family Gobiidae reaching about 10 cm. The slender body is pale brownish with rows of fine brown speckles and has, like all gobies, pelvic fins fused into a sucking disc. Remarkably, the species often lives unharmed among the stinging tentacles of sea anemones, where it finds shelter from predators, much like tropical anemonefishes. The species occurs in shallow coastal water of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the adjacent eastern Atlantic, on sand and stone bottoms. As a bottom-dweller it hunts small crustaceans, worms and other bottom life. The male guards the eggs laid under a stone or shell. Because of its small size it has no fishery importance.