Gobius cobitis Pallas, 1814 (Fig. 53)—Giant Goby

Gobius cobitis Pallas, 1814: 160, type locality: Black Sea, Ukraine, Crimea, Feodosiya [Feodosia].

Size. Known adult size about 20–25 cm total length.

Morphology. D VI + I,13–14; A I,10–12; P 19–22. Large goby with a robust body, a large head, long snout and thick lips. Caudal peduncle deep, but lower than body depth. Dorsal fins of similar height, the first dorsal fin with more or less rounded edge and no elongated spines. Pectoral fins with well-developed, short free rays. Caudal fin rounded. Predorsal area and nape scaled. Scales small, visible on body and predorsal area as pattern of pale dots.

Live coloration. Head and body variegated, finely mottled greenish to beige, with fairly invariable pattern of large and irregular dark midlateral blotches (Fig. 53). Dorsally three dark blotches at the posterior base of the dorsal fins and a smaller blotch just before the caudal peduncle on the back, and three fainter (sometimes not visible) blotches located in the center of the nape, over the pectorals, and just behind origin of the second dorsal fin, respectively. Along midline: 5 medium-sized dark blotches. Below midline: 9-10 smaller, aligned dark blotches. Often a series of roundish white spots on lower side of head (Fig. 53): one on lower lip, one at the angle of mouth, 3–5 along lower head reaching posterior border of opercle, and sometimes some smaller ones along opercular edge (Renoult et al. 2022).

Similar species. Gobius ophiocephalus, G. paganellus.

Habitat. Infralittoral and intertidal species, known from 0.2–10 m depth on hard or mixed bottoms and in lagoons with limited variation in salinity, except for the ocassional record from Israel (Kovačić & Golani 2007b, Patzner 2021).

Geographic distribution. Mediterranean, Eastern Atlantic, and Black Sea (Vasil’eva 2007). This species has migrated to the Gulf of Suez, in the Red Sea (Goren & Klausewitz 1978).