Species: Quietula y-cauda, American shadow goby
Quietula y-cauda (Jenkins & Evermann, 1889)
American shadow goby
Elongate, slender (depth 14% of TL), little compressed; head large, depressed; a transverse groove across nape; eyes on top of head, close together; mouth large, upper jaw bone very long, reaching onto operculum; teeth in single series, on lower jaw and front of upper, slightly curved; tongue round tip; 11-13 short, blunt gill rakers; dorsal IV-V + I, 13-15; anal I, 12-15, long base; pelvics fused to form disc, relatively short, not reaching nearly to anus; pectorals long, reaching past end of pelvics, 19 rays; scales small, smooth, imbedded, slightly visible only on sides, ~ 50 irregular rows along side.
Color variable: dark to light above, paler below, head and body with dark speckles; a row of dark spots along midflank; lateral Y shape mark just before tail fin; tail fin with 6-7 thin bars; spinous dorsal with dark blotches; male with thick black stripe along middle of anal fin,
Size: 7.0 cm (4.2 cm in the Gulf of California).
Habitat: mud flats of lagoons and river mouths, at times in worm or shrimp burrows.
Depth: 0-6 m.
Southern California to Gulf of California.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
-
- Non Marine
- Brackish
- Inshore/Offshore
-
- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
-
- Bottom
- Bottom only
- Habitat
-
- Estuary
- Soft bottom only
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Mud
- FishBase Habitat
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- Demersal
- Feeding Group
-
- Data
- Carnivore
- Diet
-
- Data
- Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Mobile benthic worms
- Egg Type
-
- Benthic
- No data
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
-
- TEP non-endemic
- East Pacific endemic
- All species
- Regional Endemism
-
- All species
- Continent only
- California province, primarily
- Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) non-endemic
- Temperate Eastern Pacific, primarily
- Continent
- Residency
-
- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- North Temperate (Californian Province &/or Northern Gulf of California)
- Northern Subtropical (Cortez Province + Sinaloan Gap)
- IUCN Red List
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- Least concern
- Listed
- CITES
-
- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 7
- Depth Range Min
-
- 0
- Depth Range Max
-
- 6
