The monkey goby, Neogobius fluviatilis, is a species of fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 in the Gobiidae family, and a Ponto-Caspian relict

Relict

A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.* In biology a relict is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas....

 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

.

Characteristics

The monkey goby is covered with cycloid scales

Fish scale

Fish scale may refer to:* The rigid plates on the skin of a fish* Fishscale, an album by Ghostface Killah* Fishscale cocaine* Fish Scales, a rapper...

 on the head crown, nape, back, one third of the gill covers

Operculum (fish)

The operculum of a bony fish is the hard bony flap covering and protecting the gills. In most fish, the rear edge of the operculum roughly marks the division between the head and the body....

, bases of the pectoral fins, and the posterior half of the throat and belly. Its second dorsal fin

Dorsal fin

A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...

 is small in size compared to the posterior end of the body. The width of its head is equal to or a bit greater than the height of the head, and terminates in an acuminated, or leaf-shaped, snout. The jaws of Neogobius fluviatilis contain small, conical teeth and the mandible

Mandible

The mandible pronunciation or inferior maxillary bone forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place...

s are set forward in the skull. The abdomen of the monkey goby is lined with suckers that stretch from the collar to the anus. Its coloration is a brownish gray or a yellowish gray, usually with a very pale brown pattern of dark merged spots. Rows of dark spots are also found on the dorsal and caudal fins. The average adult monkey goby measures 7–10 centimeters, but has been known to grow to lengths of 18–20 centimeters. This species weighs around 50 grams.

Range

The natural habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

 of the monkey goby is the fresh

Freshwater

Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

 and brackish water

Brackish water

Brackish water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root "brak," meaning "salty"...

s of basins in the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 and the Sea of Marmara

Sea of Marmara

The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black...

. In the basin of the Sea of Marmara

Sea of Marmara

The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black...

, it is a common sight in Manyas

Lake Kus

Lake Kuş or Lake Manyas is a lake in western Turkey, located in the Bandırma region. This is a shallow nutrient-rich freshwater lake fed by groundwater and four streams. Small deltas have formed where the latter enter the lake, comprising extensive marshes and tree-lined riverbanks. Narrow belts...

, Sapanca

Lake Sapanca

Lake Sapanca is a fresh water lake in Turkey, between the Gulf of İzmit and the Adapazarı Meadow. The lake has a catchment area of 251 km², surface area is 45 km², a length 16 km east-west / 5 km north-south, and a maximum depth of 52 m.Lake Sapanca, Turkey...

, and the Kazoli River in Bosporus

Bosporus

The Bosphorus or Bosporus , also known as the Istanbul Strait , is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles...

 Strait.
In the Black Sea and the surrounding areas, the monkey goby is common in all desalinated water including the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 river and its tributaries, the lagoon

Lagoon

A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...

s and estuaries of the north-western part of the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

, the Sea of Azov

Sea of Azov

The Sea of Azov , known in Classical Antiquity as Lake Maeotis, is a sea on the south of Eastern Europe. It is linked by the narrow Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south and is bounded on the north by Ukraine mainland, on the east by Russia, and on the west by the Ukraine's Crimean...

, and the rivers of Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

.
Recently, the monkey goby has been registered as an invasive species

Invasive species

"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....

 in some countries of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. In 1970, the species was first declared as a non-indigenous in Lake Balaton

Lake Balaton

Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of its foremost tourist destinations. As Hungary is landlocked , Lake Balaton is often affectionately called the "Hungarian Sea"...

 in Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. The monkey goby was discovered in the Middle Danube in Hungary in 1984. In 2001 it was found to have spread to the Slovak

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

-Hungarian sector of the Danube River. In the basin of the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

 it was first registered as an invasive species in 1997. The species has also become a common sight in the Włocławek Reservoir

Włocławek Reservoir

Włocławek Reservoir is a water body in the Middle Vistula flow, appeared in 1970 after building of the dam in Włocławek. The length of the reservoir is 58 km from Włocławek to Płock, average width is 1.2 km. It is biggest reservoir in Poland....

 and Zegrze Reservoir

Zegrze Reservoir

The Zegrze Reservoir is a reservoir in Poland, located just north of Warsaw. It is formed by a dam constructed in 1963 on the lower course of the Narew river...

.
The monkey goby has been found in the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 part of the river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 Rhine since March 2009. It has also been found in the Waal River, near Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

Feeding

The monkey goby belongs to the group known as malacophages, but molluscs have lower importance in its diet than in that of the round goby

Round goby

The round goby, Neogobius melanostomus, is an euryhaline bottom-dwelling goby of the family Gobiidae, native to central Eurasia including the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.-Characteristics:...

. However, in the Sea of Azov

Sea of Azov

The Sea of Azov , known in Classical Antiquity as Lake Maeotis, is a sea on the south of Eastern Europe. It is linked by the narrow Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south and is bounded on the north by Ukraine mainland, on the east by Russia, and on the west by the Ukraine's Crimean...

 molluscs (mainly ‘’Abra segmentum’’) make up 85% of its diet. In the Gulf of Tendra

Gulf of Tendra

Gulf of Tendra is a shallow water bay near the coast of Ukraine , northern Black Sea. The gulf is separated from the sea by the Tendra spit. The water body has 45 km long, 7 km wide, up to 6 m depth....

 its diet is dominated by polychaetes, the larvae

Larvae

In Roman mythology, lemures were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead, and are probably cognate with an extended sense of larvae as disturbing or frightening...

 of Chironomidae

Chironomidae

Chironomidae are a family of nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae...

, molluscs, Cerastoderma

Cerastoderma

Cerastoderma is a genus of marine bivalves, which includes the common cockle C. edule.-Species:Extant and fossil species include:* Cerastoderma edule - common cockle...

, juvenile gobies, adult marbled gobies

Marbled goby

Marbled goby, Pomatoschistus marmoratus, is a species of small-sized coastal fish of Gobiidae family. Widespread in the eastern Atlantic , Mediterranean, Black Sea and Sea of Azov, Suez Canal and Lake Qarun in Egypt.-Links:*...

, and crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s such as amphipods

Amphipoda

Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. The name amphipoda means "different-footed", and refers to the different forms of appendages, unlike isopods, where all the legs are alike. Of the 7,000 species, 5,500 are classified...

 and shrimp

Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...

. In the Danube

Danube Delta

The Danube Delta is the second largest river delta in Europe, after the Volga Delta, and is the best preserved on the continent. The greater part of the Danube Delta lies in Romania , while its northern part, on the left bank of the Chilia arm, is situated in Ukraine . The approximate surface is...

 lakes Yalpug

Yalpug Lake

Yalpuh is a freshwater lake located in the southern Ukrainian oblast of Odessa. The largest natural lake in Ukraine, it covers an area of 149 km², has an average depth of about 2 metres, a maximum depth of 5.5 metres and, at its southern-most point, adjoins Lake Kugurluy.Located at , its northern...

 and Kugurluy

Kugurluy

Kugurluy is a lake in the south-western Ukraine, in the south of Bessarabia. It is in complex of the Danube river delta....

, the diet of the monkey goby consists of amphipods, molluscs, and Oligochaeta

Oligochaeta

Oligochaeta is a subclass of animals in the biological phylum Annelida, which is made up of many types of aquatic and terrestrial worms, and this includes all of the various earthworms...

.

In the Khadzhibey Estuary

Khadzhibey Estuary

Khadzhibey Estuary, or Khadzhibeyskyi Liman , is an estuary of the north-western part of the Black Sea, located on the north-west from the City of Odessa. It is separated from the sea by the sandbar, which has about 5 km length. The linght of the estuary is 31 km, width...

 a dozen species of prey make up the diet of monkey goby. Polychaetes, larvae

Larvae

In Roman mythology, lemures were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead, and are probably cognate with an extended sense of larvae as disturbing or frightening...

 of insects, and shrimp are present in the diet year round. Seasonal dietary additions include crabs such as Rhithropanopeus harrisii, sea weed such as Zostera marina

Zostera marina

Zostera marina is a species of seagrass known by the common names common eelgrass and seawrack. It is an aquatic plant native to marine environments on the coastlines of mostly northern sections of North America and Eurasia. It is the most wide-ranging marine flowering plant in the Northern...

, and amphipods such as Marinogammarus olivii. Certain plankton

Plankton

Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...

ic crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s are also present in the diet of adult gobies.

Parasites

In the northwestern Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

, twelve parasite species are known to infect the monkey goby. The core of the parasitic fauna are a trio metacercariae composed of Сryptocotyle concavum, Сryptocotyle lingua, and Рygidiopsis genata. Other common parasites include the nematode

Nematode

The nematodes or roundworms are the most diverse phylum of pseudocoelomates, and one of the most diverse of all animals. Nematode species are very difficult to distinguish; over 28,000 have been described, of which over 16,000 are parasitic. It has been estimated that the total number of nematode...

 Dichelyne minutus and the cestoda

Cestoda

This article describes the flatworm. For the medical condition, see Tapeworm infection.Cestoda is the name given to a class of parasitic flatworms, commonly called tapeworms, of the phylum Platyhelminthes. Its members live in the digestive tract of vertebrates as adults, and often in the bodies...

 Ligula pavlovskii. The trematode parasites C. lingua and P. genata can also infest humans. In the 1950s, along the coast of the Gulf of Taganrog in the Sea of Azov

Sea of Azov

The Sea of Azov , known in Classical Antiquity as Lake Maeotis, is a sea on the south of Eastern Europe. It is linked by the narrow Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south and is bounded on the north by Ukraine mainland, on the east by Russia, and on the west by the Ukraine's Crimean...

, the monkey goby was registered as a host

Host (biology)

In biology, a host is an organism that harbors a parasite, or a mutual or commensal symbiont, typically providing nourishment and shelter. In botany, a host plant is one that supplies food resources and substrate for certain insects or other fauna...

 of epizootic

Epizootic

In epizoology, an epizootic is a disease that appears as new cases in a given animal population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is "expected" based on recent experience . Epidemic is the analogous term applied to human populations...

 of nematodes Tetrameres fissispina and Streptocara crassicauda, which are fatal to ducklings.

Importance

In Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 the monkey goby is a crucial commercial fish, especially in the Sea of Azov

Sea of Azov

The Sea of Azov , known in Classical Antiquity as Lake Maeotis, is a sea on the south of Eastern Europe. It is linked by the narrow Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south and is bounded on the north by Ukraine mainland, on the east by Russia, and on the west by the Ukraine's Crimean...

 and Dnieper-Bug Estuary

Dnieper-Bug Estuary

Dnieper-Bug Estuary is an open estuary, or liman, of two rivers: Dnieper and Southern Bug. Located in the northern coast of the Black Sea. The most important port is Ochakiv....

. It plays an important role in the food chain by serving as prey for other predatory fish living in these areas.

Further reading

• Fishes of waters of Ukraine / Monkey goby (Neogobius fluviatilis (Pallas, 1814)) - in Russian
• Digitaler Fischertenatles von Deutschland und Österreich / Neogobius fluviatilis Pallas, 1814 - Flussgrundel - in German