Red Blackfaced Blenny

Description:

Locally known as 'Pjevčić oštronosić' (I roughly translated this as sharp-nosed little rooster, which provoked some laughs, but also described the fish quite accurately...), Red blackfaced blenny is a small and delicate ground fish, reaching some 10cm in length. Also known as Red-black Triplefin, this is an elongated, spindle-shaped fish with a pointed snout and a general beige to grey-brown colouration, with five fairly uniform dark-brown bars. Its main distinguished feature is a three-part dorsal fin, and the male has a more elongated first ray of the second dorsal fin, wearing it as a sort of flag. During the breeding period (summer), the male (pics No 1-4) takes on a red colouration on the front part of the body, and the head becomes all black. Female is portrayed in pics 5 and 6.

Habitat:

This is very common littoral demersal fish of Adriatic, occurring all along Croatian coast, but most often overlooked. Here, seen in very shallow waters, among crevices and semi-submerged rocks, and always in clear waters, well exposed to sunlight. Here, seen several times at 0,2 to 0,5m of depth, on a popular beaches in a village of Dubrovnik riviera (Cavtat). The depth in this zone raises up to 3m, and then descending sharply down to 10m. The sea bottom here is rocky, creating many crevices and tunnels, and rocks are abundantly covered in algae. In those deeper waters, there are some large colonies of sea grass.

Notes:

This summer I decided to spend more time snorkelling among rocks close to shores, in search of demersal fish mainly blennies, gobies and similar rockbottom dwellers. Mission accomplished and I got a load of photos of them - unfortunately, most of them are too blurry, as they are very fast to move and hide, and most often occur as fleeting shadow in my pics...