''Gobius incognitus'', the incognito goby or anemone goby, is a species of

goby The Gobioidei are a suborder of percomorph fish. Many of these fishes are called gobies. It is by far the largest and most diverse order within the order Gobiiformes, and one of the most diverse groups of ray-finned fish in general. The subord ...

native to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

and perhaps 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 ...

.M. Kovačić, R. Šanda, 2016 : ''A new species of Gobius (Perciformes: Gobiidae) from the Mediterranean Sea and the redescription of Gobius bucchichi.'' Zootaxa, No. 4093(2), . The name ''incognitus'' means "unknown" in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and refers to the long period of time that passed before this common and widespread species was recognized and described. Prior to its description, it was confused with Bucchich's goby (''G. bucchichi''), a species that now appears to be restricted to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and perhaps the Black Sea. Much previously published information for Bucchich's goby is now considered to actually be for the incognito goby. The incognito goby typically reaches a length of , and feeds on small

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

s and algae. The incognito goby is found at the bottom from shallow water to a depth of . It is often associated with the sea anemone ''

Anemonia sulcata ''Anemonia sulcata'', or Mediterranean snakelocks sea anemone, is a species of sea anemone in the family (biology), family Actiniidae from the Mediterranean Sea. Whether ''A. sulcata'' should be recognized as a Synonym (taxonomy), synonym of ''An ...

'', hiding amongst its tentacles when threatened.Debelius, H. (1997). ''Mediterranean and Atlantic Fish Guide.'' Juveniles are typically found with

sea urchin Sea urchins or urchins () are echinoderms in the class (biology), class Echinoidea. About 950 species live on the seabed, inhabiting all oceans and depth zones from the intertidal zone to deep seas of . They typically have a globular body cove ...

References

Fish of the Mediterranean Sea incognitus Fish described in 2016 {{Gobiidae-stub