Zebraface Blenny, Coralliozetus micropes
Zebraface Blenny, Coralliozetus micropes. Fish collected sitting on a rock at Cabo Real, Baja California Sur, July 2021. Length: 5.5 cm (2.2 inches). Identification courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah.
The Zebraface Blenny, Coralliozetus micropes, is a member of the Tube Blenny or Chaenopsidae Family, that is also known as the Scarlet-fin Tube Blenny and the Zebraface Tube Blenny and in Mexico as tubícola cara de cebra. Globally, there are six species in the genus Coralliozetus, of which four are found in Mexican waters, all in the Pacific Ocean.
The Zebraface Blenny has an elongated slender body. They are dimorphic with males being dark brown with a yellowish caudal fin, several narrow diagonal white lines across the cheek and gill cover, and several rows of white spots on the head and front half of the body. Females are yellowish white and can be nearly translucent with white and brown flecks on the side and several brown bars on the lower half of the head and a dark blotch at the front of the dorsal fin. Their head is short and blunt with simple cirri at the nostrils and cirrus above the eye that is longer than the eye diameter in males and about half the eye diameter in females. Their mouth has a notch in the middle of the top lip and one row of teeth on each side of the roof of the mouth. Their anal fin has 2 spines and 21 to 24 rays, their first dorsal fin has 19 to 21 spines; their second dorsal fin has 11 to 13 rays; and, their pectoral fins have 12 to 14 rays. The first dorsal fin is tall and “sail-like” and the uniformly low in females.
The Zebraface Blenny inhabit abandoned barnacles, mollusks tubes, and worm tubes on rocky reefs and around boulders in very shallow waters at depths up to 3 m (10 feet). They reach a maximum of 4.0 cm (1.6 inches) in length. They enter tail first in the various types of shelter in which they reside and are found with only their head exposed. They feed primarily on zooplankton. The Zebraface 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 Zebraface Blenny is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean but has a limited distribution being found from Magdalena Bay south along the southwest coast of the Baja, and throughout the Sea of Cortez.
The Zebraface Blenny is most likely confused with the Barcheek Blenny, Coralliozetus boehlkei (white oblique bars on the cheeks, not a resident of northern Mexican waters).
From a conservation perspective the Zebraface Blenny is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are small in stature and of limited interest to most.