---
title: Rock Goby (Gobius paganellus)
scientific_name: Gobius paganellus
common_name: Rock Goby
taxon: Gobies
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-12-04T18:11:20.136Z
updated: 2026-08-13T12:14:22.702Z
tags: Rock Goby, Gobius paganellus, Gobies, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/gobies/rock-goby
---

# Rock Goby (*Gobius paganellus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Gobies (*Gobiidae*)
- **Size:** up to 12 cm
- **Depth:** 0-15 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Shallow rocky shore and harbor walls, under stones
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- stocky brown goby mottled darker, resting on the bottom on fused pelvic fins
- pale orange or white upper edge to the first dorsal fin
- under stones and in crevices on rocky shore rather than on coral
- length up to 12 cm

A stocky mottled brown goby of rocky shorelines, under stones and along harbor walls, resting on the bottom on a suction disc made from its fused pelvic fins. Up to 12 cm (5 in), and drab enough that nobody photographs it on purpose.

Which makes its address remarkable. This is an Atlantic and Mediterranean fish - it lives from Scotland to Senegal and through the Mediterranean and the Black Sea - and it reached this sea by swimming south through the Suez Canal.

That direction is the rare one. Something like a hundred species have gone north through the canal from here into the Mediterranean, a flood large enough to have its own name; the return traffic is a trickle, because Mediterranean water is colder and less salty and the animals adapted to it struggle in the Red Sea. A dozen species have managed it. This goby is one of them, alongside the gilt-head seabream.

It spawns under stones: the male clears a cavity, the female sticks eggs to the roof of it, and he guards and fans them until they hatch. It tolerates brackish water and low oxygen better than most reef fish, which is presumably part of how it got here at all.

## Also known as

- **English:** rock goby
- **Hebrew:** קברנון החוף
- **French:** gobie paganel
- **Italian:** Ghiozzo paganello
- **German:** Felsengrundel, Paganellgrundel
- **Spanish:** Gobio de Roca, Bobi, Caboso
- **Greek:** Κωβιός, Πετρογωβιός
- **Turkish:** kaya baligi
- **Portuguese:** Caboz-da-rocha
- **Dutch:** Paganelgrondel
- **Swedish:** Klippsmörbult
- **Polish:** Babka skalna
- **Czech:** hlaváč pestrý
- **Ukrainian:** Бичок паганель, Бичок скельний, Бичок-паганель
- **Russian:** Бычок паганель, Бычок-паганель
- **BRE:** Skanteg paganell, touseg babousek, touseg wras
- **CA:** Cabot comú, Calacabot
- **CYM:** Pysgod Bili Bigog, bill bigog
- **DA:** Klippekutling
- **FI:** luototokko
- **GLE:** Mac siobháin carraige
- **HR:** Glavoč mrkulj
- **MLT:** Mazzun tal-port, Mazzun zbirr, Mazzun
- **NNO:** klippekutling
- **NO:** klippekutling
- **SL:** Rjavi glavač
- **SQI:** burdullaku i shkëmbit, Burdullak

## Scientific synonyms

- *Bathygobius paganellus* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Gobius albosignatus* Kessler, 1874
- *Gobius bicolor* Gmelin, 1789
- *Gobius capito* Valenciennes, 1837
- *Gobius capitonellus* Kessler, 1874
- *Gobius punctipinnis* Canestrini, 1862

## Range

Black Sea, France, Greece, Ireland, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, North Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, United Kingdom

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/gobies/rock-goby)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*