jason_mazzy
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2016
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Everyone here loves fish or at least some aspect of the reef and/or fish. Many people go for big and beautiful butterflies, astounding angelfish, gorgeous groupers, tantalizing triggers, and amazing anthias. Smaller tanks are limited to many other small but beautiful fish selections including some great wrasses, dottybacks, and chromis. Even among all these great selections I think, in general, we are pigeonholed by one thing and that is beauty or "flash". Now, while beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder I don't find it often that people truly desire to fill their tanks with dull grey mudfish or brown suckers and I think what this leads to is overlooking a few contenders. Perhaps they aren't the flashiest fish but i think some of the overlooked and underused are probably the key missing fish from your display that will lend you hours of entertainment and millions of smiles shortly after adding them.
Now, I am not going to do all the research and give you all my suggestions but there is one fish that I feel strongly enough about that I'm willing to share, even though selfishly I prefer to hoard them all, and that is the Panamic barnacle blenny.
At around 2.5 inches, this fish is generally a mottled Brown with some green or grey undertones, but what he lacks in color he makes up in action and what I can only call comedic approach.
First, the fish has a splash of nearly neon red and orange about the face from their Ruby red lips and orange eyes and this gives the fish a nearly clownish appearance. Second, the fish has an almost reptilian look to it. In fact it reminds me more of a lizard than a little swimmer. The body is kind of slithery looking and the eyes sort of bulge out and operate independent of one another much like a chameleon, always looking in a multitude of directions at the same time. If this wasn't funny enough the head is constantly moving back and forth and up and down as if trying to observe the whole world in 1 second every second. Now what could be so interesting as to require this kind of dutiful viewing? Food of course.
You see these little guys seem to realize that their small stature and reptilian body makes them look like a worm on the end of a hook and their method of defense against being consumed is to hide their little lanky bodies into a small hole and dart out at a blinding speed only to return before you realize what just happened. I am convinced that these are the world's fastest fish. They will literally dart out of a rock at least several inches to well over a foot and return in milliseconds. Even more amazing is the precision to which they grab food from the water column and return their spot perfectly tucked away again looking for more food. This continues at an alarming rate and is only expounded by having multiple barnacle blennies all doing this at the same time to which a constant blur much like a blender is viewed. When they are done all you see are these big Muppet eyes and lips fit for a caricature poking out of the rock, back to doing the same googly eyed head-bob. Personally I haven't seen anything funnier in an aquarium and I've seen a dolphin hump his handler....
So if you are looking for splashes of action and a comedic appearance look no further than this humble little guy known as "the panamic barnacle blenny".
Now, I am not going to do all the research and give you all my suggestions but there is one fish that I feel strongly enough about that I'm willing to share, even though selfishly I prefer to hoard them all, and that is the Panamic barnacle blenny.
At around 2.5 inches, this fish is generally a mottled Brown with some green or grey undertones, but what he lacks in color he makes up in action and what I can only call comedic approach.
First, the fish has a splash of nearly neon red and orange about the face from their Ruby red lips and orange eyes and this gives the fish a nearly clownish appearance. Second, the fish has an almost reptilian look to it. In fact it reminds me more of a lizard than a little swimmer. The body is kind of slithery looking and the eyes sort of bulge out and operate independent of one another much like a chameleon, always looking in a multitude of directions at the same time. If this wasn't funny enough the head is constantly moving back and forth and up and down as if trying to observe the whole world in 1 second every second. Now what could be so interesting as to require this kind of dutiful viewing? Food of course.
You see these little guys seem to realize that their small stature and reptilian body makes them look like a worm on the end of a hook and their method of defense against being consumed is to hide their little lanky bodies into a small hole and dart out at a blinding speed only to return before you realize what just happened. I am convinced that these are the world's fastest fish. They will literally dart out of a rock at least several inches to well over a foot and return in milliseconds. Even more amazing is the precision to which they grab food from the water column and return their spot perfectly tucked away again looking for more food. This continues at an alarming rate and is only expounded by having multiple barnacle blennies all doing this at the same time to which a constant blur much like a blender is viewed. When they are done all you see are these big Muppet eyes and lips fit for a caricature poking out of the rock, back to doing the same googly eyed head-bob. Personally I haven't seen anything funnier in an aquarium and I've seen a dolphin hump his handler....
So if you are looking for splashes of action and a comedic appearance look no further than this humble little guy known as "the panamic barnacle blenny".
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