Forktongue Goby

Fascinating facts about the Forktongue Goby

• A light-brown goby can sport roughly six broad vertical bands along its body, plus a bold blotch on the tail base, turning each fish into a living barcode of the intertidal zone.
• Despite reaching only 16 cm (about 6.3 in) in length, this little fish is one of the commonest intertidal fish species along Japan’s temperate coasts.
• Its name isn’t random: "Chaeno" means "gape" in Greek and "annularis" means "ringed" in Latin, a nod to the fish’s wide mouth and the distinctive rings that run across its sides.
• Living in brackish water, the fork-tongued goby sticks to the bottom (a demersal habit) and can be found from Russia and China down to the Korean Peninsula, Japan, the Kurils, and Sakhalin.
• Because it occupies a huge stretch of coastline and faces no known threats, the IUCN classifies it as Least Concern, reminding us that some marine species thrive even as many others struggle.

At a glance

About the Forktongue Goby

The fork-tongued goby, Chaenogobius annularis, has a light brown head and body with about six broad vertical bands, several small dusky spots, and a distinct blotch on the caudal peduncle. Its dorsal fins are light brown with darker sinuous horizontal bands, and the caudal and pectoral fins are light brown with darker vertical bands. It grows to a maximum total length of 16 centimetres (6.3 in). It lives in brackish water with a demersal habit, occurring along intertidal rocky shores and in rock pools, and is one of the commonest intertidal fish species on the temperate coastlines of the Japanese Archipelago.

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