---
title: Yellowtail Rockskipper (Istiblennius flaviumbrinus)
scientific_name: Istiblennius flaviumbrinus
common_name: Yellowtail Rockskipper
taxon: Combtooth blenny
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2026-08-04T21:32:44.569Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:09:45.911Z
tags: Yellowtail Rockskipper, Istiblennius flaviumbrinus, Combtooth blenny, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/combtooth-blenny/yellowtail-rockskipper
---

# Yellowtail Rockskipper (*Istiblennius flaviumbrinus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Combtooth blenny (*Blenniidae*)
- **Size:** up to 11 cm
- **Depth:** 0-2 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Intertidal rock and the surge zone
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- yellow tail against a barred gray-brown body
- blunt head with a fringe of tentacles above the eyes
- skips between tide pools rather than swimming off

A blunt-headed blenny with a barred gray-brown body and a distinctly yellow tail, the contrast that names it. Small branched tentacles stand above each eye, the dorsal fin runs almost the length of the back, and the mouth carries the comb of fine teeth the family uses to scrape algae. Length reaches about 11 cm (4.3 in), and males in breeding condition develop a raised crest on the head.

It lives in the tide zone proper - intertidal rock, surge channels and pools - where it grazes algal film through the day. Rather than swimming away when disturbed, the fish skips across wet rock from pool to pool in a series of flicks of the tail, and can hold out of water for minutes at a time, breathing through skin and gill chambers kept damp. Along Red Sea shorelines it is one of the commonest fish above the waterline, though a diver will almost never meet it: everything it needs is in the first two meters of depth, most of it above the surface at low tide.

## Also known as

- **English:** Shady Rockskipper, pallid rockskipper
- **Czech:** slizoun jemnoskvrnný
- **Russian:** Желтохвостая морская собачка

## Scientific synonyms

- *Belenniella flaviumbrinus* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Blennius dama* Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1899
- *Halmablennius flaviumbrinus* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Halmablennius steinitzi* Lotan, 1970
- *Halmablennius steinitzii* Lotan, 1970
- *Salarias cervus* Sauvage, 1880
- *Salarias dama* Valenciennes, 1836
- *Salarias flavo-umbrinus* Rüppell, 1830
- *Salaris flaviumbrinus* Rüppell, 1830

## Range

Eritrea, Seychelles

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/combtooth-blenny/yellowtail-rockskipper)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*