Painted goby

Painted goby

Painted goby © Julie Hatcher

Mating painted gobies

A pair of painted gobies mating and laying eggs in a burrow. The darker coloured fish is the male © Alexander Mustard/2020VISION

Painted goby

Scientific name: Pomatoschistus pictus
This slim fish is usually found on gravelly parts of the seabed, close to shore, but can turn up in rockpools.

Species information

Statistics

Length: up to 9cm, but usually 6cm or less
Lifespan: around 2 years

Conservation status

Common

When to see

January to December

About

The painted goby generally lives close to the shore, in waters ranging from around 1-50 metres deep. They thrive in areas where the seabed is gravelly or covered in coarse sand, with their blotchy patterns helping them to camouflage against the floor. They can sometimes be found in rockpools.

Painted gobies have been widely studied for their use of sound. Males compete over nesting sites, defending their territory with displays that involve spreading their fins, quivering their body, and producing bursts of drumming - rapid pulses of low frequency sound. Scientists have found that larger gobies produce longer bursts of drumming, so males can use the sounds to size each other up.

Male painted gobies also use sound to help attract a mate. They create a nest by digging a hole beneath an empty shell, then try to attract a female by pairing more visual displays with a series of drumming and thumping sounds. The more effort a male puts into these displays, the more likely a female is to be impressed. If he's successful, the female will enter the male's nest and lay her eggs, which the male will then look after and guard.

How to identify

A small, slim, elongate, fawn-coloured fish, with its eyes close to the top of its head. It's similar in appearance to other gobies, but can be recognised by its two distinct dorsal fins (on its back), positioned closely together, with rows of black spots - usually two rows of spots on the first fin, and one or more rows on the second. There is also a row of dark blotches on each side of its body.

Distribution

On course sand or gravelly seabed around the UK.

Did you know?

Painted gobies feed on tiny crustaceans, including shrimp-like amphipods.

How people can help

When rockpooling, be careful to leave everything as you found it - replace any seaweed you move out of the way, put back any crabs or fish and ensure not to scrape anything off its rocky home.