One species, several fish. Along a single stretch of reef this blenny turns up uniformly brown, solid black, and dark at the front with a pale rear end, and the forms perch on the same coral blocks next to each other. They are not sexes, ages or subspecies. They are color forms of one animal, and the form a fish carries is fixed.
The mark that does not change is over the eye: two short yellow bands, present in every version. If you can see those, you have this species whatever color the rest of it is.
It is a grazer. The lower jaw carries a comb of fine teeth set loosely in the lip, which is what combtooth blennies are named for, and the fish scrapes a film of algae and detritus off rock with them in short repeated bites, hopping from one perch to the next between mouthfuls.
It lives here and nowhere else: the 🌊 Red Sea, the gulfs of Aqaba and Suez, and the western end of the 🌊 Gulf of Aden.
The genus. Ecsenius McCulloch 1923 - senio (six each). ETYFish
- stubby blenny perched on coral, propped on its pelvic fins
- two short yellow bands over the eye, present in every color form
- body uniformly brown, solid black, or dark in front and pale behind
- up to 8 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no major threats known for this species, although most species of Ecsenius are likely to be collected for the aquarium trade.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
