Mexican Blenny, Paraclinus mexicanus

Mexican Blenny, Paraclinus mexicanus, Male. Fish collected from a tidal pool at Km 17, El Tule, Baja California Sur, March 2007. Length: 1.25 cm (0.5 inches). Identification courtesy of Dr. Richard Rosenblatt, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.

Mexican Blenny, Paraclinus mexicanus, Male. Fish caught from a coastal tidal pool, April 2015, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, April 2015. Length: 5.8 cm (2.3 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of George Brinkman, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Mexican Blenny, Paraclinus mexicanus, Female. Fish collected from a tidal pool at Km 17, El Tule, Baja California Sur, February 2011. Length: 4.4 cm (1.7 inches). Identification courtesy of Dr. Richard Rosenblatt, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.

Mexican Blenny, Paraclinus mexicanus. Underwater photographs taken in coastal waters of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, May 2018. Photographs courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah. Tentative identifications courtesy of Dr. Phil Hastings, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.

Mexican Blenny, Paraclinus mexicanus. Underwater photographs taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2018 and November 2023. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.

The Mexican Blenny, Paraclinus mexicanus, is a member of the Labrisomid Blenny or Labrisomidae Family, and is known in Mexico as trambollo mexicano. Globally, there are twenty-three species in the genus Paraclinus, of which thirteen are found in Mexican waters, five in the Atlantic and eight in the Pacific Ocean.

The Mexican Blenny has an elongated body with a uniform depth throughout that tapers gradually at the rear into the tail. They are heavily mottled in green and brown with 6 or 7 diffuse bars on their sides that extend into the dorsal fin and are more prominent adjacent to it. They have a prominent white edged oblique dark bar below their eyes and a black ocellated spot on the rear of their dorsal fin. Their anal and dorsal fins have thick dark bars and their caudal fin is spotted. Their head has a bluntly pointed snout, large eyes and lips, and a branched cirrus on the nostril and over each eye. Their mouth is large and opens at the front. Their anal fin has 2 spines and 17 to 20 rays; their caudal fin is square; and, their dorsal fin has 17 to 21 spines and up to 2 rays with a deep notch in between the third and fourth spines. They are covered with small smooth scales.

The Mexican Blenny is a shallow water coastal species found within weed-covered rocky shores at depths up to 11 m (35 feet). They reach a maximum length of 6.0 cm (2.4 inches). They are diurnal highly territorial predators that feed mostly on benthic crustaceans including small crabs. Reproduction is oviparous with females depositing eggs in protected areas.  The Mexican Blenny is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.

The Mexican Blenny is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean but has a limited distribution being found in the lower half of the Sea of Cortez and along the coast of the mainland north of Acapulco; they are absent from the Pacific Coast of Baja.

The Mexican Margarita Blenny is easily confused with the Mexican Margarita Blenny, Malacoctenus mexicanus (1 head pore; short third pelvic ray; body with diffuse markings).

From a conservation perspective the Mexican Blenny is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are very small in stature, seldom seen by humans and of limited interest to most.