Gobies

Gobies are small, cigar-shaped bottom fish that rest directly on the seabed rather than swimming above it. The giveaway is underneath: their two pelvic fins are fused into a shallow suction cup that lets them grip rock in surge. They also have two separate dorsal fins, where a blenny has one long one, and a smooth rounded head with no tentacles over the eyes. Most Maltese species are 5 to 12 cm.

Four turn up regularly around the islands. The rock goby, Gobius paganellus, is a dark mottled fish of the top few metres, under stones and in surgy gullies, with a pale or orange margin along the first dorsal fin. Bucchich's goby, long called Gobius bucchichi and now often identified as the very similar Gobius incognitus, is sandy-brown with rows of reddish dots and is the one you see sitting fearlessly among the stinging tentacles of a snakelocks anemone. The slender goby, Gobius geniporus, is pale, longer-bodied and lies out on open sand beside seagrass. The red-mouthed goby, Gobius cruentatus, is the handsome one, grey-brown with blood-red streaks on the lips and cheeks, usually deeper and in shade.

They are ideal subjects for a diver who moves slowly: they hold station, tilt their head to track you, and only hop a short distance when you push too close.