Blenny SHOWOFF!!!!!!!!!!

Chasmodes · Feb 20, 2017

Josh, it's amazing how much the pictured feather duster blenny resembles a female feather blenny, and the pictured freckled blenny resembles the male H. hentz. What are the differences between the two genuses? One is the fang, I guess?

Josh Carter · Feb 20, 2017

I agree they do look similar. I always thought male H. ionthas were H. hentz because I had never seen one and the female ionthas look so different. H. ionthas however do not have that mottled appearance over the body and I think H. hentz display that all the time. I've never seen a high breeding male H. hentz though have you? Do they have breeding colors? The picture of my H. ionthas male is pretty much the breeding color pattern with the purple almost iridescent hues and large cirri. When underwater with a H. hentz for the first I knew right away what it was with the branching single cirri and blotchy color. Plus the size, it was huge. Rarely have seen ionthas that big.

I've attached a paper on blenny phylogeny. The particular paper put Hypsoblennius as sister to Chasmodes but the three genera are closely related. For such closely related genera they sure have some big distinguishing factors. In my opinion the chasmodes look like no other blenny I know of. Just a unique fish. And those fangs on Hypleurochilus are curious as well. I believe the lineages are quite old and have take a long time to produce what we see today. I'd have to do a little more digging to refresh my memory better of just how old. Interesting how little is really known about these fish. I mean you google H. hentz and the wikipedia page has a bosquianus pictured. Maybe it's just being around them so much under water and on land that they all have a night and day different look. The fish are just so common, but I don't think people interact much with them. Just about every dive shop I've spoke doesn't have a clue about blennies other than they're the little fish that scoot around on the structure.

Chasmodes · Feb 20, 2017

I haven't personally seen a male H. hentz in breeding colors, but have seen videos of them. They are pretty dark also, but brownish hues, bright blue spot on the dorsal fin, and the cirri become bright orange.

I agree, species in the Chasmodes genus seem so much different, more laterally compressed, longitudinal stripes (and the one over the nape to the nose), a much larger mouth, almost bass like.

Yeah, that's funny about the Wikipedia site. I don't know how people confuse the two genera, but it happens quite often on-line from what I can tell. To me, Hypsoblennius and Hypleurochilus have a very similar look morphologically.

I'm also surprised that you don't see any of the three genera for sale in the aquarium hobby. It's a shame, because some are quite colorful, and all of them are hardy with a ton of personality. I fell in love with them the first time that I caught one 36 years ago.

Thanks for the paper, that's awesome! I have some studying to do

Daniel@R2R · Feb 28, 2018

Let's see some more blennies!!

Chasmodes · Feb 28, 2018

OK, here are a few pics of mine.

Chasmodes bosquianus (striped blenny)

Female

Male

Juvenile

With his best bud, the skilletfish

Chasmodes · Mar 1, 2018

Rather than type the word "bump", I figured that I'd just post another pic

I have no shortage of pics of these guys!

Male striped blenny:

mta_morrow · Mar 1, 2018

My latest addition, tailspot blenny

Eva Rose · Mar 1, 2018

Chasmodes said:
OK, here are a few pics of mine.

Chasmodes bosquianus (striped blenny)

Female

Male

Juvenile

With his best bud, the skilletfish

Oh wow he is really cute!!

Plauri55 · Mar 1, 2018

Barnacle Blenny. Just got three of these guys. Extremely entertaining at feeding time.

Frizzles7 · Mar 1, 2018

My black line blenny. Just after feeding time. Super energetic and so fun to watch.

Kyl · Mar 3, 2018

Look at the gut on that guy, haha! Here's my tailspot in better times, still fighting off an eye infection in QT currently :|

stare by Kyl, on Flickr

sil40sx · Mar 4, 2018

Mine is a bully. Ugh!

Chasmodes · Mar 5, 2018

Eva Rose said:
Oh wow he is really cute!!

Thank you Eva!

Here's another pic of one of the males.

Sipec · Mar 5, 2018

Kyl said:
Look at the gut on that guy, haha! Here's my tailspot in better times, still fighting off an eye infection in QT currently :|

stare by Kyl, on Flickr

Hope he gets better. I want to get a tailspot soon

Chasmodes · May 23, 2018

Here's a video of my tank. My striped blennies are full grown now. The mottled one that you see at 40 seconds into the video is the only female in the tank. The rest of them are adult males in their spawning coloration. At the 3:25 and 5:00 minutes in the video, you can get a good idea of their coloration as they spar over the female. I personally think that these sparring matches are pretty cool to watch. After the final bout, the video pans back to the female.