Green Blenny, Labrisomus striatus

Green Blenny, Labrisomus striatus, Juveniles. Underwater photographs taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2023. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.

Green Blenny, Labrisomus striatus, Female. Fish collected from a tidal pool at Km 17, El Tule, Baja California Sur, February 2007. Length: 2.5 cm (1.0 inch). Identification reconfirmed by H.-C. Lin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.

Green Blenny, Labrisomus striatus, Male. Fish collected from a tidal pool at Km 17, El Tule, Baja California Sur, April 2009. Length: 9.0 cm (3.5 inches). Identification courtesy of H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.

The Green Blenny, Labrisomus striatus, is a member of the Labrisomid Blenny or Labrisomidae Family, and is known in Mexico as trambollo listado. Globally, there are twenty-seven species in the genus Labrisomus, of which thirteen are found in Mexican waters, nine in the Atlantic and four in the Pacific Ocean.

The Green Blenny has a shortened elongated body with a uniform depth throughout that tapers gradually at the rear into the tail. The sexes have different colors. Females are light brown with a series of thin dark stripes between the scale rows; they have large red-brown spots on their sides and a pale colored head with a pair of brown bars that run obliquely down and back from the eyes. Males are greenish with a similar pattern of bars as females. Their head is broad with a blunt snout, large eyes, a branched cirrus over each eye, and several heavily branched cirri on each side of the nape. Their mouth is large, opens at the front, and is slightly oblique; it is equipped with one row of small teeth on the upper and lower jaws. Their anal fin has 2 spines and 17 rays; their caudal fin is square; their first dorsal fin has 18 spines; and their second dorsal fin has 10 rays. They are covered with small scales.

The Green Blenny is a shallow water coastal species found within weed-covered rocky structure at depths up to 9 m (30 feet). They reach a maximum of 14.0 cm (5.5 inches) in length. 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 Green 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 Green Blenny is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean but has a limited distribution being found in the lower two-thirds of the Sea of Cortez and from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, southward along the west coast of the mainland; they are absent from the west coast of Baja.

The Green Blenny is mostly likely confused with the Largemouth Blenny, Labrisomus xanti (large mouth; numerous white spots on lower part of head and body).

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