Painted Greenling, Oxylebius pictus

Painted Greenling, Oxylebius pictus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Santa Cruz, September 2023. Length: 15 cm (5.9 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Ben Cantrell, Peoria, Illinois.

Painted Greenling, Oxylebius pictus. Fish caught from within Monterey Bay, Monterey, California, August 2020. Length: 15.5 cm (6.1 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Painted Greenling, Oxylebius pictus. Fish caught from within Tillamook Bay, Tillamook, Oregon, July 2021. Length: 16 cm (6.2 inches). Catch, photographs and identifications courtesy of Eli (obsessiveangling.wordpress.com).

Painted Greenling, Oxylebius pictus. Underwater photograph taken in the coastal waters off Monterey, California, February 2022. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah.

The Painted Greenling, Oxylebius pictus, is a member of the  Greenlings or Hexagrammidae Family, that is known in Mexico as molva pinta. Globally, there is just one species in the genus Oxylebius, the species which is found in Mexican waters of the Pacific.

The Painted Greenlings has an elongated compressed slender body. They are grayish brown with five to seven red or reddish brown prominent wide bars on their sides that extend into the fins. These bars are absent in breeding males. Some fish are dark with white spots. There are three dark bars that radiate from their eyes, one forward and two backwards. Their throat and their caudal, pectoral, and pelvic fins all have dark spotting. Their head has a very pointed snout with two cirri, one above the eyes and the other midway between the eyes and the origin of the dorsal fin. Their anal fin has 3 or 4 spines and 12 to 13 rays with a notch in between; their caudal fin is rounded; their first dorsal fin has 16 spines and is shorter than the second dorsal fin that has 14 to 16 rays; and, their pelvic fins are of moderate length and do not reach the anal fin base. They have a prominent lateral line and are covered with scales.

The Painted Greenlings are found in rocky areas from the intertidal zone to depths up to of 225 m (740 feet). They reach a maximum length of 25 cm (10 inches). They feed on bryozoans, crustaceans, mollusks, and polychaetes. They have a symbiotic relationship with, and take shelter within, the venomous tentacles of the Fish-eating Anemone, Urticina piscivore and the White-spotted Anemone, Cribrinopsis albopunctata, to avoid predation. They are known to protect their clusters of orange eggs by becoming aggressive towards intruders. They have a lifespan of up to eight years.

In Mexican waters the Painted Greenlings have a limited range being found in the Pacific Ocean from Guerrero Negro northward along the central and northwest coasts of Baja.

The Painted Greenling is straightforward to identify and cannot be confused with any other species.

From a conservation perspective the Painted Greening is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely-distributed populations. They are uncommon and seldom caught by recreational anglers. They are generally small in stature and of limited interest to most, however, they are commonly encountered in pairs by divers as they hover motionless.