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Forkbeard: the night hunter with the forked throat threads that spends its days in the rock crevices of the Mediterranean

It hunts at night, spends the day in rock crevices and carries two threads under its throat that fork at the tip: the forkbeard, *Phycis phycis* — in German Dunkler Gabeldorsch (German Wikipedia), in Spanish brótola de roca, Italian musdea or mostella, French mostelle de roche, Portuguese abrótea-da-costa, Dutch gaffelkabeljauw, Danish middelhavsskælbrosme, Swedish klippbrosme, Finnish hankaturska, Russian обыкновенный нитепёрый налим, Turkish gelincik, Greek πετροσαλούβαρδος, Slovenian tabinja, Albanian peshkfiku i zi (all GBIF), Croatian tabinja mrkulja and Arabic حرشونة المتوسط (Wikidata). For Norwegian and Japanese we found no confirmed species name in GBIF and Wikidata. Here you’ll find how to recognise it, where and how deep it lives, what it eats, when it spawns, why it is a fish of the night — and why you shouldn’t confuse it with its larger relative, the greater forkbeard, which in German is often simply called “Gabeldorsch”.

A cod relative named after seaweed

It was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766. It belongs to the order of cod-like fishes (Gadiformes) and, according to FishBase and German Wikipedia, to the forkbeard family (Phycidae); according to German Wikipedia it shares its genus *Phycis* with two other species. According to English Wikipedia, both the genus and species names go back to the Greek phykon, seaweed — because these fish usually hide among algae. According to FishBase it is harmless to humans.

How to recognise it

  • Mouth and barbel: a wide mouth with thick lips (English Wikipedia), slightly inferior, and a single chin barbel with sensory cells, which according to German Wikipedia it uses to feel for food on the bottom.
  • The fork: according to German Wikipedia, the pelvic fins sit at the throat, in front of the pectoral fins, consist of only two rays and are extended into a thread-like filament that forks at the tip — hence the German name Gabeldorsch and the English forkbeard.
  • Fins: two dorsal fins, a short, rounded one in front with 9 to 11 rays and a long one behind it with 56 to 65 rays, plus a long anal fin and a rounded tail fin; no spines in any fin (English and German Wikipedia).
  • Colour: dark to reddish brown or grey above, pale below; the fins dark, in some individuals with a pale edge (German and English Wikipedia). According to Italian Wikipedia, the scales are very small and come off easily.
  • Size: usually around 25 cm, at most 65 cm and, according to FishBase, 3.9 kg; according to FishBase it reaches sexual maturity at around 36 cm, the first individuals from 32 cm.

A fish of the night

What makes it special for anglers is its daily rhythm. According to FishBase and English Wikipedia, the forkbeard is nocturnal and hides among rocks during the day; German Wikipedia speaks of caves and rock crevices, while Italian Wikipedia calls it light-shy and hard for divers to reach. At night, according to German Wikipedia, it also hunts over sediment areas near its hiding places, and French Wikipedia describes it as very mobile at night. According to FishBase it eats small fish and various invertebrates, according to Italian Wikipedia mainly fish and crustaceans; FishBase gives it a trophic level of 4.3 — a predator, then, that simply doesn’t hunt in broad daylight. According to Italian Wikipedia, it is itself eaten by, among others, the conger eel and the tope shark.

Where it lives — and how deep

It is a fish of the Mediterranean and the eastern Atlantic: according to FishBase from the Bay of Biscay to Morocco and further south to Cape Verde, plus around the Azores; German Wikipedia names the Macaronesian islands. According to German Wikipedia it occurs only patchily in the eastern Mediterranean, and according to French Wikipedia it is rare in the Bay of Biscay. It lives over rocky ground and over sandy-muddy bottoms close to rocks. It is not a shallow-water fish: according to German Wikipedia it is rarely found in the shallows, prefers depths from 15 m and goes down several hundred metres. Exactly how deep it lives is described differently by the sources — see the contradictions below. FishBase also rates it as highly to very highly vulnerable to climate change (68 out of 100).

Spawning season and youth

According to English, German and French Wikipedia, it spawns from January to May, according to Italian Wikipedia in winter and early spring. According to Italian Wikipedia, the juveniles live in open water up to a length of 4 cm and look quite different from the adults: blue back, silver flanks. Only after that do they move to the bottom. How fast it grows and how long it lives is something the sources disagree on — that is also covered below.

Musdea, mostelle, abrótea: on the plate and on the hook

Commercially it is a minor player — and yet sought after. FishBase lists only a small commercial fishery, but places it in the highest price category; German Wikipedia attributes a very minor role to it in commercial fishing. According to Italian Wikipedia it is caught with longlines (palamiti) and bottom trawls; its flesh is considered excellent and tender there, with less than 5% fat. French Wikipedia calls it sought after by anglers and spearfishers for its tender flesh and locally prized. For you, that means: if you fish the bottom over rocky ground at night in the Mediterranean, you may come across it. None of our sources names specific baits or rigs — which is why there are none here either.

Status — and what you can do

On the IUCN Red List, the forkbeard is listed as Least Concern, assessed according to FishBase on 2 February 2015. Italian Wikipedia sees no signs of overfishing, but warns that in catch statistics it is often confused with similar species — so the figures on it are less certain than the assessment suggests. FishBase rates its vulnerability to fishing as moderate (45 out of 100).

For you on the water, that means: whether a minimum size or a catch limit applies to it is governed by the national and regional regulations of each country — we found no generally valid rule for recreational anglers. Ask the local fisheries authority or your guide before the trip. And because the spawning season runs from January to May, it’s a good idea during those months to release ripe fish gently.

Five contradictions in the sources

  • How deep does it live? FishBase: 13 to 614 m, usually 100 to 200 m — but in the habitat text on the same page 100 to 650 m, sometimes deeper. English Wikipedia: 100 to 650 m. Italian: mostly 100 to 650 m, sometimes in the shallows, also in caves. German: from 15 m down to several hundred metres. French: often at 100 to 200 m, also deeper than 600 m.
  • How big is it usually? FishBase, English, German and Italian Wikipedia: around 25 cm. French Wikipedia: 30 cm on average. On the maximum, all agree: 65 cm.
  • Which family does it belong to? FishBase, English and German Wikipedia: its own family Phycidae. French Wikipedia: family Gadidae (cods), subfamily Phycinae — and one of English Wikipedia’s sources, a study on age and growth in the Azores, also lists it under “Gadidae”.
  • Does it grow slowly or not? English Wikipedia: comparatively slow-growing and long-lived. FishBase: medium resilience, a population doubles in 1.4 to 4.4 years — rather fast for a slow, long-lived fish. None of the sources gives a maximum age.
  • How valuable is it? FishBase: only a small commercial fishery, but a very high price category. German Wikipedia: a very minor role in fishing. Italian: fished commercially in some areas. French: without great commercial value, but locally prized and sought after by anglers.

Three naming traps

  • In German, “Gabeldorsch” is often its larger relative. Under the entry “Gabeldorsch”, German Wikipedia describes not this fish but *Phycis blennoides*, the greater forkbeard — a species that grows up to 110 cm long, ranges into the North Sea and to Norway and Iceland and lives as deep as 800 m. There, our fish is called Dunkler Gabeldorsch, in GBIF also Brauner Gabeldorsch. How to tell them apart, according to French Wikipedia: in *P. blennoides* the first dorsal fin is about twice as high as the second, the pelvic fins reach beyond the start of the anal fin, and the dorsal and anal fins have a black edge.
  • “Mostelle” on its own identifies nothing. In French, our fish is the mostelle de roche, the rock mostelle; *P. blennoides* is called mostelle de fond, the bottom mostelle. In Italian, GBIF lists more than twenty names for our fish, including musdea, mostella and mustia — only the second word or the scientific name settles it.
  • Three barbels means: a different genus. The rocklings (*Gaidropsarus*, French motelles) look similar, but according to French Wikipedia they carry two additional barbels on top of the head, near the nostrils, and are more elongated. The forkbeard has only the one chin barbel.

That leaves the question every article in this series starts with: when. For a fish that spends the day in a rock crevice, that is no side issue. Habitat, prey and habits are above, and they are fixed. What changes every day is everything else — light, air pressure, wind, water temperature, current — and whether a night over rocky ground is worth it is decided right there. That is what StrikeAhead calculates: it takes the conditions on your water and tells you when the trip is worth it. And because you don’t know unfamiliar water, its edges and its rules from day one, StrikeAhead Pathfinder tells you who to head out with: curated guides and skippers, personally vetted before listing — licence and insurance —, with verified catches instead of advertising photos, no paid ranking and no booking fee for you as an angler. The app tells you when, Pathfinder tells you with whom.