The spiny pugolovka (''Benthophilus spinosus'') is a fish of family

Gobiidae Gobiidae or gobies is a family (biology), family of bony fish in the order (biology), order Gobiiformes, one of the largest fish families comprising over 2,000 species in more than 200 genus, genera. Most of gobiid fish are relatively small, typ ...

. Widespread along the southern and eastern coasts of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. On the east it is common between the

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Kulaly and

Mangyshlak Peninsula Mangyshlak or Mangghyshlaq Peninsula (; ) is a large peninsula located in western Kazakhstan. It borders on the Caspian Sea in the west and with the Buzachi Peninsula, a marshy sub-feature of the main peninsula, in the northeast. The Tyuleniy Ar ...

in south. This species lives in brackish waters at depths down to about and strictly avoids fresh waters. It can reach a length of TL.

References

Fish of the Caspian Sea Fish of Central Asia Benthophilus Endemic fauna of the Caspian Sea Taxa named by Karl Kessler Fish described in 1877 {{Gobiidae-stub