A blenny patterned like lichen, sitting in the open on a rock and moving only when it has to. Fourteen centimeters (5.5 in), and one of the most successful algae specialists on the flat.
It eats by scraping. The teeth are fine, numerous and comb-like, and it drags them over rock to take the film of algae and detritus - hundreds of quick bites an hour, all day, which is what a diet of nearly pure plant matter requires.
That appetite made it famous in the aquarium trade as the fish that clears a tank of algae. It also made it a problem, because a tank that has been cleared has nothing left to feed it, and the blenny starves in a spotless aquarium. The reef version never runs out.
The tentacles over the eyes and on the nape break its outline against textured rock, and the marbling does the rest. It relies on being unremarkable rather than on being fast, and it works.
The species. Salarias fasciatus (Bloch 1786) - banded. ETYFish
- stout blenny densely marbled in brown, gray and white, like lichen
- branched tentacles over the eyes and on the nape
- perches openly on rock and rubble, propped on pelvic fins
- length up to 14 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no known major threats.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
