Mainly Fish
Blennies
Written by Saturday, 29 June 2002 00:00
Given the right environment every organism will display its natural behaviour. In the last photo above one of the blennies with the strange markings shows what their purpose is. The fish can be distinguished only after close examination. Even its dorsal fin resembles algae covered leaves. Nothing beats nature in this respect. Even the way this fish moves is strange. Although it can swim it rarely does so. In contrast, it walks on the sand. Using its pectoral fins as feet, it will slowly (but efficiently) walk from rock to rock till it hides again in the next algae "bush". When it moves in the open space it keeps its body curved in an "S" shape closely resembling a piece of macro algae moved by the water current. We caught him by accident; we are now looking for a second individual for the other tank. Very difficult to be spotted in nature.
A clown, an arlekin, a star or a narcissus? A lovely animal, highly recommended for any temperate water marine tank. It is an all-in-one package. Intelligent, easily acclimatized, always next to the tank's front glass (so it will be the first to come to the food), not harassing any other fish and (strangely) not harassed by any of them. Now add to it the beautiful colouration, the voracious appetite, the ease of feeding (I have yet to see it refusing to eat something). Will rush to the surface during feeding time (which means every time you come close to the tank glass) and you can hear the splash sound if the food particle is quite big. It will happily take frozen shrimps, frozen mysis, daphnia, marine flakes, pellets, whatever. Usually it will fill its mouth till it can take nothing more (it can put too much food in it) and then retreat to eat in peace. Will sit on almost anything (anemones, rocks, fireworms, sea urchins) as long as it gets an unobstructed path to the surface and a good view to what happens out of the tank. A gem for every Mediterranean tank. Collected at a depth of 3 meters with a hand net, quite easily since it is not a shy fish and will usually stay in place until it is too late to run away. One of the largest blennies in the Mediterranean reaching a maximum size of 30 cm. The specimen in the picture is 10 cm long.
Some fish like to pose for the camera. This blenny is not afraid of the camera or human presence in general. Whenever we approach the tank, it will stop any other activity and come to the front glass and stay motionless even when the camera lens is about 2 cm from its face. It will not move even after multiple flash exposures.. no wonder we get this kind of photos with it.
When this fish was introduced in the tank it had a very difficult time with the Salaria pavo which - despite what the books say - is a really territorial fish when it comes to all of the bottom of the tank. L. pholis is a bit smaller than the S. pavo so the latter made it very clear who the true boss was. Even now, five months later, the hierarchy is completely understood and followed. The S. pavo will be the first to go to the food (at the surface) while the L. pholis will stay hanging mid water till the S. pavo fills its mouth and leaves. Very quickly acclimatized mainly because of the Salaria pavo which showed it the way to feed from the surface. Usually it can be seen basking on the rocks. Will accept almost everything including (but not limited to) frozen shrimps, frozen mysis, pellets and marine flakes. Very quick during feeding time, it will try to get as much food as possible and then retreat to eat it in peace. This should be taken into account when feeding such a tank because L. pholis, Parablennius gattorugine and S. pavo will leave very few things for other fishes. It is advised either to feed more or chop the food in really tiny pieces so it will take them more time to get the pieces giving other fish a chance to eat something. Easily collected in a rock pool, less than 30 cm deep, during spring. Its maximum size is 20 cm - the size of my specimen is about 10 cm. Will stand really low temperatures since it is the only true blenny that can be found as north as Norway. It can even walk across land on its pectoral fins. It may live up to ten years.
Read article on Starting a marine (Mediterranean) tank.
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