Show off your Blennies!

SirTang

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My yellow-tail blenny, such a clever guy. I've had it about 6 months now

Y-Tail.JPG
 

SMSREEF

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This is an awesome thread! I love everyone’s pics. These guys have so much personality I can’t wait to get one!
 

Chasmodes

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Great pics everyone! I can't get enough of seeing everyone's favorite blennies. Keep the pics coming!

I collect my blennies from local tidal waters near me in Maryland. There are two species, and I've collected one so far, Chasmodes bosquianus (the striped blenny). Here is a picture of a male:
IMG_9665_zpstawancpn.jpg


Males are more colorful than the females. Here you can see a bright blue spot on the front of the dorsal fin, trimmed in yellow (sometimes orange). Most Atlantic species of combtooth blennies have this blue spot. You can also see the tail and pectoral fins trimmed in reddish orange. I don't have a recent pic of a male, but the red/orange color gets pretty deep when they're breeding. They also have a peach or orange coloration on their gill plates and lips.

Here are two males sparring over territory. These two had their favorite oyster shell just 8" apart from each other. They avoided each other except when each thought that the other was two close. This spot in the tank is about half way between their shells. They will flash and try and coax a female into their shell to spawn, hence the more attractive colors of the males. They keep close to their shells, as their colors could attract predators. After breeding, the males guard the eggs. Here is one guarding eggs with the female just to the right sitting outside of his oyster shell:
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Females will lay eggs even while the male is guarding another brood. Here's the female. Note the camo like color pattern. This enables the females to move about the oyster reef to forage and search for males to breed with. One female will breed with multiple males.
IMG_0408_zpshx1erfjk.jpg


Finally, here's a cool video of three males trying to "flash" and attract a female. They will do this and try and herd the female into their oyster shell to spawn, even blocking her escape. Also, one male early in the video made the mistake of going into another one's oyster shell and gets chased off:
 

mta_morrow

Of course I have room for 1 more fish!
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This is Spot. My tailspot blenny chillin’ with Mrs Smith, my female wheelers goby. I do have a Mr Smith as well. If he finds out about this, there will be some serious tank drama!

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