---
title: Bullethead Rockskipper (Blenniella periophthalmus)
scientific_name: Blenniella periophthalmus
common_name: Bullethead Rockskipper
taxon: Combtooth blenny
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-18T12:14:45.870Z
updated: 2026-08-14T11:36:02.086Z
tags: Bullethead Rockskipper, Blenniella periophthalmus, Combtooth blenny, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/combtooth-blenny/bullethead-rockskipper
---

# Bullethead Rockskipper (*Blenniella periophthalmus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Combtooth blenny (*Blenniidae*)
- **Size:** up to 14 cm
- **Depth:** 0-5 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Intertidal rock and reef crest, in very shallow water
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- rounded bullet-shaped head with a steep vertical front
- mottled gray-brown, males with a raised crest on the head
- in a few centimeters of water on the reef flat
- length up to 14 cm

A blunt, bullet-headed blenny of the reef flat, living in water so shallow that it is regularly left in a puddle when the tide drops.

That is not an accident. Rockskippers work the intertidal because almost nothing else can: the food is a thick algal turf nobody competes for, and the predators that would eat a 14 cm fish cannot follow into ten centimeters of water. The price is a habitat that heats, dries and disappears twice a day, and the fish deals with it by knowing exactly where the holes are.

Males develop a raised crest on the head and defend a crevice, and the eggs are laid inside it and guarded by the male.

They move by hopping - a flick of the body against the tail - and they do it as readily on wet rock as in water. Watch a reef flat at low tide for a few minutes and the rock starts moving.

## Also known as

- **English:** blue-dashed rockskipper, Blue-dashed Blenny, Blue-streaked Blenny
- **French:** Blennie périophtalme
- **Italian:** Bavosa perioftalmo, Falso perioftalmo
- **Spanish:** Blenio Punteado
- **Portuguese:** Blênio-perioftalmo
- **Czech:** slizoun modroskvrnný
- **Japanese:** ハナカエルウオ, Hana kaeru uo, Hanakaeruuo
- **Chinese:** 圍眼蛙鳚
- **AF:** Koeëlkop-klipspringer
- **MAH:** Jibalan, Kudrakel
- **MAL:** Kakkadan, Mandian, കക്കാടന്

## Scientific synonyms

- *Alticops periophthalmus* (Valenciennes, 1836)
- *Istiblennius biseriatus* (Valenciennes, 1836)
- *Istiblennius periophthalmus* (Valenciennes, 1836)
- *Istiblennius periophthalmus biseriatus* (Valenciennes, 1836)
- *Salarias biseriatus* Valenciennes, 1836
- *Salarias muscarus* Snyder, 1908
- *Salarias percophthalmus* Valenciennes, 1836
- *Salarias periophthalmus* Valenciennes, 1836
- *Salarias schultzei* Bleeker, 1859

## Range

Comoros, Eritrea, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/combtooth-blenny/bullethead-rockskipper)*
*Updated: August 14, 2026*