Tubenose goby Proterorhinus marmoratus

Aquatic Invasions (2008) Volume 3, Issue 2: 261-265
doi: 10.3391/ai.2008.3.2.20
© 2008 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2008 REABIC
Open Access
Short communication
Tubenose goby Proterorhinus marmoratus (Pallas, 1814) has joined three other
Ponto-Caspian gobies in the Vistula River (Poland)
Joanna Grabowska 1 * , Dariusz Pietraszewski 1 and Markéta Ondračková 2,3
1
University of Lodz, Department of Ecology & Vertebrate Zoology, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 Łódź, Poland
Institute of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611-37 Brno, Czech Republic
3
Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Květná 8, 603-65 Brno, Czech Republic
2
*Corresponding author
E-mail: joko@biol.uni.lodz.pl
Received: 22 April 2008 / Accepted: 8 May 2008 / Published online: 2 July 2008
Abstract
The Ponto-Caspian fish species, tubenose goby Protherorhinus marmoratus, was recorded for the first time in Poland. Six specimens
were captured during April 2008 from rip-rap habitat where the river enters of Włocławski Reservoir, which is situated in the lower
section of the Vistula River (Baltic basin). This appears to be the next stage in the species’ westward invasion through the so-called
‘central invasion corridor’ for Ponto-Caspian species. The tubenose goby is, therefore, the fourth alien goby in recent decades to
disperse into Polish inland waters, following after the round goby Neogobius melanostomus, the racer goby Neogobius
gymnotrachelus and the monkey goby Neogobius fluviatilis.
Key words: gobiids, invasive species, alien species, invasion corridor
The Ponto-Caspian region is thought to be one of
the major donor areas for alien aquatic species,
both in central Europe (bij de Vaate et al. 2002)
and North America (Ricciardi and MacIsaac
2000). The invasion of North American waters
by Ponto-Caspian species resulted from releases
of ballast waters from transoceanic ships,
whereas the migration of aquatic invertebrates
and fish from the basins of Black, Azov and
Caspian seas into the Baltic and North Sea basins
has followed the three invasion corridors
described by bij de Vaate et al. (2002). Amongst
the most impressive of the East-to-West
expansions in the recent decades have been those
of the gobies (Copp et al. 2005). Until now, only
three species of Ponto-Caspian gobies have been
recorded in Poland: round goby Neogobius
melanostomus (Pallas, 1814) (Figure 1), racer
goby Neogobius gymnotrachelus (Kessler, 1857)
(Figure 2) and monkey goby Neogobius
fluviatilis (Pallas, 1814) (Figure 3).
The round goby was first time reported in
1990 in Puck Bay, Gulf of Gdańsk, Baltic Sea
(Skóra and Stolarski 1993). It soon spread along
the entire Polish part of the Baltic coast,
colonized some coastal lakes and the Vistula
Lagoon and invaded other parts in the Baltic i.e.
coast of Germany (Corkum et al. 2004), Estonia,
Finland, Lithuania (Ojaveer 2006). Since 2004 it
is present also in the North Sea basin
(Netherlands) (van Beek 2006). Round goby
became one of the dominant species in the Gulf
of Gdańsk, especially in the shallows (Sapota
2004), and began moving up the Vistula River
and by 2002 was found as far as 130 km
upstream of the river’s mouth (Kostrzewa et al.
2004) (Figure 4).
The most probable route of the round goby’s
arrival in the Gulf of Gdańsk was via the socalled northern corridor, which consists of the
Volga River, the Rybinsky Reservoir, and the
Ladoga and Onega lakes, which are connected to
the Gulf of Finland by artificial canals (Sapota
2004). Its introduction to Polish waters is often
attributed to ballast-water transport (some types
of ships i.e. ‘Volgo-Balt’ use ballast waters and
261
J. Grabowska et al.
Figure 1. Round goby Neogobius melanostomus from the
Gulf of Gdańsk (Poland) (Photo: M. Grabowski).
Figure 2. Racer goby Neogobius gymnotrachelus from the
Włocławski Reservoir (Poland) (Photo: M. Grabowski).
Figure 3. Monkey goby Neogobius fluviatilis from the
Włocławski Reservoir (Poland) (Photo: M. Grabowski).
not only sail between the Black Sea and the
Baltic but also move upstream big European
rivers) but gobies are able to disperse also by
‘hitch-hiking’ as eggs attached to the river
vessels (Wiesner 2005). Two other gobies
species (racer, monkey) have invaded the Baltic
basin via the central corridor, which follows the
rivers Dnieper (Gulugin and Kunitsky 1999) and
262
Pripyat (Black Sea basin) through the PripyatBug canal to the rivers Bug (also known also as
the Western Bug) and Vistula. The racer goby
was first reported in Poland when specimens
were found in 1995 in the middle course of the
Bug River in the vicinity of Pripyat-Bug
connection (Danilkiewicz 1996). Two years
later, monkey goby was found in virtually the
same section of the Bug River (Danilkiewicz
1998). Both species rapidly expanded in the
entire Polish part of the Bug River and invaded
the lower stretch of the Vistula, almost to the
river mouth (Kostrzewa et al. 2004) (Figure 4).
Based on mitochondrial DNA analysis of racer
goby (Ohayon and Stepien 2007), the Dnieper
River has been identified as the most likely
origin of racer goby found in the Vistula basin.
In April 2008, the fourth species tubenose
goby Proterorhinus marmoratus (Figure 5) was
recorded for the first time in Poland. Six
individuals (five females and one male) of
tubenose goby (total length 52–58 mm) were
found in the Vistula River near the bridge at
Płock (52°32'05"N, 19°41'12"E) at the downstream end of the Włocławski Reservoir). The
fish were caught by electrofishing at depths from
0.2 to 0.5 m along the rip-rap of river banks
devoid of vegetation, which resembles the
habitat described for racer goby invading the
middle stretches of the Danube River (Ahnelt et
al. 1998; Prášek and Jurajda 2005; Wiesner
2005). Also captured were racer goby (dominant
in abundance), monkey goby and single specimens of native species i.e. roach (Rutilus rutilus
(Linnaeus, 1758)), three-spine stickleback
(Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus, 1758).
Tubenose goby was reported in August 2007
for the first time in the upper and middle parts of
the Pripyat River (Belarus), very close to the
Pripyat-Bug canal (Rizevsky et al. 2007), which
suggests that the species reached Poland and the
Vistula basin via the Pripyat-Bug canal.
Tubenose goby was not found during surveys
conducted in the Bug River in August 2007,
when a total of 197 racer goby and 319 ones of
monkey goby were captured at 20 sampling sites
situated approximately every 10 km from the
vicinity of the Pripyat-Bug connection to the
confluence with the Vistula (Grabowska et al. –
upublished data). The site where tubenose goby
was first recorded in Poland is about 405 km
downstream of the confluence of the Bug River
with the Pripyat-Bug connection. Such ‘jumps’
in distribution by gobies invading the Danube
basin have been attributed to ‘hitch hiking’ on
Tubenose goby in the Vistula River
Figure 4. Expansion of Ponto-Caspian gobies in Poland. 1:
round goby (solid line – present distribution; dot – place of
first record in Poland); 2: racer goby (solid line - present
distribution; dashed line – route of invasion from the Dnieper
River system; dot – place of first record in Poland); 3:
monkey goby (solid line – present distribution; dashed line –
route of invasion from the Dnieper River system; dot – place
of first record in Poland); 4: possible direction of further
migration for all four gobies; 5: tubenose goby – place of first
record in Poland; 6: watersheds of river basins; 7: Polish
border; 8: canals (see also Annex 1).
Figure 5. Tubenose goby Proterorhinus marmoratus from the
Vistula River (Poland) (Photo: M. Grabowski).
river ships (Ahnelt et al. 1998; Wiesner 2005),
however the Bug River is almost never used as a
waterway for ships or barges. This suggests that
tubenose goby is expanding rapidly by natural
dispersal, and the species is therefore likely to
invade most of the Vistula river Basin within a
short time.
The natural distributions in freshwaters of
most euryhaline Ponto-Caspian gobies were
limited mainly to brackish lagoons of the Black,
Azov and Caspian seas and lower reaches of
their rivers. Therefore, the tubenose goby may be
considered as having the greatest natural range
among them, with presumably the best ability to
establish truly riverine populations. This appears
to be the case for the upstream stretches of the
Danube basin (Ahnelt et al. 1998; Prášek and
Jurajda 2005) and in the rivers Dnieper, Don and
Volga (Naseka et al. 2005). The tubenose goby
has also reached to the lower parts of the Rhine
catchment via the Rhine-Main-Danube waterway
(e.g. von Landwűst 2006). Recently it was found
in the lower section of Neva River and in the
eastern part of Gulf of Finland (Antsulevich
2007) spreading there probably through the
Volga-Baltic inland waterway (i.e. the northern
corridor sensu bij de Vaate et al. 2002).
Tubenose goby it is also one of two PontoCaspian gobies that successfully settled in the
Great Lakes of North America introduced there
with ballast waters (Jude et al. 1992). The
invasion of Ponto-Caspian gobies might be
interpreted as a continuation of postglacial
colonization and adaptation to local conditions
created after Pleistocene, combined with passive
dispersal due to water transport (Ahnelt et al.
1998) and other man-made changes in lotic
ecosystems like e.g. damming, alteration of river
banks (Copp et al. 2005). Moreover, the PontoCaspian gobies possess several biological
attributes that seem to facilitate their invasion,
i.e. phenotypic plasticity (Kováč and Siryová
2005; L’avrinčikova et al. 2005), effective
reproductive tactics (Grabowska 2005), opportunistic feeding strategy (Grabowska and
Grabowski 2005; Kakareko et al. 2005) and low
parasite loads relative to native species (Ondračková et al. 2005). Given the demonstrated
dispersal and establishment success of the
tubenose goby and the other three Neogobius
species present in Polish inland waters (bij de
Vaate et al. 2002), these species are expected to
disperse more widely throughout Western
Europe via the so-called ‘central corridor’.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to our colleagues L. Marszał, M. Przybylski,
Ł. Kapusta and S. Tybulczuk for their assistance in the field
work. The study was supported by the internal grant from
the University of Łódź. We would like to thank also an
anonymous reviewer for comments and Gordon Copp for
editorial improvements.
263
J. Grabowska et al.
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Tubenose goby in the Vistula River
Annex 1. First records of Ponto-Caspian gobiids in Poland.
Site No. (Map Ref.)
Record coordinates
Location
1
2
3
4
Hel (Gulf of
Gdansk)
The Bug River
between
Terespol and
Drohiczyn
The Bug River
between
Terespol and
Mężenin
Płock (the
Vistula River)
Species and
record date
Number
collected
18°47'51"
Neogobius
melanostomus
June 1990
1
52°05'09"
52°23'21"
23°38'26"
22°42'27"
Neogobius
gymnotrachelus
July 1995
1100
Danilkiewicz 1996
52°05'09"
52°22'23"
23°38'26"
22°47'09"
50
Danilkiewicz 1998
52°32'05"
19°41'12"
6
Present study
Latitude,
°N
Longitude,
°E
54°35'57"
Neogobius
fluviatilis
SeptemberOctober 1997
Proterorhinus
marmoratus
April 2008
Reference
Skóra, Stolarski
1993
265