News / Europe’s smallest fish off Shetland
EUROPE’S smallest marine fish has been found off the Shetland coast by two local divers.
Guillet’s goby (Lebetus guilleti) only grows up to a maximum length of 24mm and was spotted by Rachel Hope and Richard Shucksmith whilst shore diving at Lunna.
It is an extremely rare fish and was only described as a species in 1971, with just four sightings in England and other sparse records from the Mediterranean, northern Spain and one from the Kattegat, which was previously the most northerly record.
The species have never been recorded in Scotland before and this finding extends the known range 140 miles further north.
Due to the importance of this sighting it has been accepted for publication in the peer reviewed Marine Biological Association Journal ‘Marine Biodiversity Records’.
The couple said: “Although we had been photographing the marine life around Shetland with the aim of looking for the interesting, rare and unusual species that live around the Shetland coastline we didn’t expect to find a fish quite as rare as this.
“We are very excited to have found such an unusual and rare fish in Shetland. We have both been diving for over 10 years and have thousands of dives between us and had never seen this fish before.
“We realised we had found something unusual when we examined our photographs and realised this fish was not mentioned in any of our marine life identification guides.”
Little is currently known about the Guillet’s goby’s biology. It seems to prefer living on rough ground such as shelly sand in shallow coastal waters and due to its small size it is able to hide between the shell fragments, making it extremely difficult to spot.
Male and females have different colouration, although both have mottled buff coloured bodies.
However the male has a brightly coloured second dorsal fin with a blue spot and orange stripes, much like a brightly coloured butterfly.
Gobies are a family of small, mostly bottom living fish and share a similar small and elongated body shape. They all have distinctive thick lips and bulbous eyes set close together near the top of the head.
When the couple found this species the males and females were paired up with the females appearing to be swollen with eggs. Normally in goby reproduction the male will choose the nest site such as an empty shell, or a crevice where the female will lay the eggs. The male will then guard the eggs until they hatch. These pairs seem to indicate that Guillet’s goby is breeding in Shetland.
Finding this species in Shetland means that its known range now must encompass the whole of the UK.
It is possible that the spread of this species further north is a climatic range expansion or it could simply be that due its small size and cryptic colouration it has been overlooked.
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