Gobies are highly specious and found in a diversity of habitats making them ideal for comparative studies. Here we examined the brains and behaviour of common species of inter-tidal gobies found in Sydney Harbour. Initial studies focussed on the homing behaviour of rock-pool species and we found that individuals showed high site fidelity and could home when displaced by more than 30m. We then compared the spatial learning ability of rock-pool species with sand-dwelling species with the expectation that natural selection should favour strong spatial learning skills in the former but not the latter.  Sand-dwelling gobies tend to move with the tides and live in a very dynamic, featureless environment.  A battery of spatial learning tests supported our predictions and we found that rockpool species tended to rely strongly on landmarks to navigate whereas sand-dwelling  species tended to use egocentric navigation techniques. Examination of their brains exposed a tradeoff in investment in neural tissue: Rockpool species have large telencephalons while sand-dwellers had large optic-tecta. Our results clearly show that both the brains and behaviour of intertidal fishes are shaped by the habitats they occupy.