A stout blunt-faced blenny perched on a rock in the shallows, propped up on its pelvic fins like a small gargoyle, with branched tentacles over each eye.
It is a lawnmower. The mouth is set underneath the head and filled with rows of fine comb-like teeth - not for biting but for scraping, dragged across rock to strip the algal film off it. A grazing blenny works in a series of quick downward pecks, and a rock it has cleaned shows the marks.
The eyes move independently and sit high enough to watch the whole hemisphere above the fish, which is what an animal that cannot swim fast needs. Escape is not speed, it is being one hop from a hole.
Fourteen centimeters (5.5 in). Common on any shallow flat, and one of the few reef fish a snorkeler can watch for ten minutes without it going anywhere.
The genus. Istiblennius Whitley 1943 - istios (sail) + blennius (blenny). ETYFish
The species. Istiblennius unicolor (Rüppell 1838) - uni-. ETYFish
- stout blenny with a blunt vertical face and high-set eyes
- mottled gray-brown with darker bars, branched tentacles over the eyes
- perches on rock propped on its pelvic fins
- length up to 14 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no major threats known for this species.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
