When you picture creatures scaling waterfalls, you might think of salmon leaping upstream. But the real champions are much smaller — and far stranger.

The Hawaiian goby (Sicyopterus stimpsoni), nicknamed the Nopoli rock-climbing goby, is only a few inches long, yet it can climb waterfalls nearly 1,000 feet high. Using a suction-cup mouth and pelvic fins that act like a second anchor, it inchworms its way up slick vertical rock while water crashes down around it. Juvenile gobies hatch in the ocean, then make this incredible trek upstream to find safer mountain streams where they can grow to adulthood.

They’re not the only daredevils. In the Andes, the Astroblepus catfish also uses its mouth as a suction pad to climb vertical rocks and waterfalls. But nothing rivals the goby’s skyscraper-sized feats of scaling sheer cliffs against impossible odds.

Sometimes the smallest bodies conquer the biggest challenges.