''Mesogobius batrachocephalus'', the knout goby or toad goby, is one of the species of gobiid fish native to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

and the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

basins. It lives in

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

water

lagoons A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into '' coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

, occasionally in fresh waters, such as the coastal

Lake Siutghiol Siutghiol () is a lagoon on the shores of the Black Sea, in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania. It has a length of and a width of ; it extends over and has a maximum depth of . Ovidiu Island is a small island on the west side of the ...

in Romania. It prefers areas near cliffs with sandy, shelly or rocky substrates at depths of from , sometimes down to . The knout goby is a

piscivore A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted repti ...

. It can reach a length of SL and weight of . Maximum known age is eight years.

References

Mesogobius Fish described in 1814 Fish of the Black Sea Fish of Europe Fish of West Asia Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Gobiidae-stub