Scientific name- Neogobius melanostomus

If you are a little fish swimming around in darkness, be prepared for a bottom dwelling fish ready to attack you. A round goby is a fish with a very well-developed sensory system. The sensory system allows the round goby to detect another fish swimming by. Even when the lake is dark, the round goby has the ability to catch and eat a fish swimming by, which allows the round goby to kill many native species.

The round goby was found in Michigan’s St. Clair River in the 1990’s. It is native to Russian regions. Now, the round goby is in all the Great Lakes. The round goby is able to adapt to many different water conditions. This ability allows them to live in many different water areas and kill native fish in several different habitats.

Round gobies have a single pelvic fin on their undersides that looks like scallops. Their bodies are mainly gray, but there are also black and brown spots. Round gobies can be 3 to 6 inches long.

The arrows on the picture of the round goby are pointing at the pelvic fin. The bottom picture is a view from under the fish, and it also shows you the pelvic fin.

Upper Midwest Environmental  Sciences Center (UMESC) scientists are working on chemicals to kill round gobies.  Scientists are very concerned about the population of the round goby. It can eat so many fish that it has become a threat to native species.

Click on the "Introduction" button below to see the bibliography for this page and more information on nonnative species.