Weston Minter, age 11,  of Urbandale., Iowa, or his questioni

What  Is a goby?

The law of the jungle seems to be kill or be killed, and most sea dwellers are both hunted and hunters. But if all nature obeyed this blind law, the animal kingdom would perish. The bright and tiny goby fishes, for example, know a million tricks to dodge the rule of kill or be killed.

The goby found in the island lakes of Luzon in the Philippines is the smallest true fish in the world. He is somewhat less than 1 inch long. Other gobies thrive in mudflats, mangrove swamps warm shallow seas and in the sunlit waters of colorful coral reefs. A few species swarm in the deep ocean.

We know ef about 700 goby type fishes, and a few of these gobioids are l or 2 feet long. Most of the true gobies of the gobioid family are bright jewels no longer than 2 to 4 inches, there are about l00 of them, and each species has a sucker disk formed from a merging of the two pelvic fins on his underside. Most of these true gobie. Are bedecked with bright colors and are full of tricks to dodge the hungry predators that prowl their watery world.

In the warm oceans swarms of gobies hover above the gaping shells of oysters and huge clams. When a goby is startled he darts right into a pair of opened shells, and the equally startled oyster or clam shuts his gaping door with a snap. You would expect this to be the end of the goby, but not at all. When the shellfish feels that safety has returned, he opens his doors and out swims the goby, quite unharmed.

Many gobies of the coral reefs swim into the toothy jaws of parrot fish and big grunts and groupers. After picking and nibbling the scraps of food caught in the teeth of their hosts, these fellows also swim out unharmed. The arrow goby of California shares the burrow of the marine worm. This innkeeper worm also shares his u shaped burrow with a tiny pea crab. Another goby guards the burrow of a ghost shrimp. When scared he darts inside to safety, thereby warning his host, the shrimp. Most goby parents guard their tiny eggs .and share life with swarms of relatives, young and old. You could spend a lifetime studying their many surprising habits and admiring the wide assortment of their jewel colors.

The biggest gobioid is the 2 foot eleotrid, which may be caught for human food. Some Philippine gobies also become food fish. These parent gobies live in streams and go to salt water to spawn; swarms of the young fry, called ipon, are netted offshore. The infant midgets are mashed and fermented to make a fishy paste called bagoog.