Trivia question for Feb-06-2011

Olivia decided to feature this small cute little guy for today’s trivia so here goes:

This fish is a scaleless fish and a bottom dweller. The head is large and the mouth has comb-like teeth. The eyes are set up high on the head. Its pectoral fins are broad and rounded allowing them to prop itself up on its fins while sitting on the bottom.

This fish is found in shallow waters just outside the reef from about 10 feet out to about 35 feet, occasionally deeper. It is a bottom dweller. It likes to perch on top of coral heads or stones, and at the sign of danger darts down into the coral for protection.

The distribution of this fish extends from Hawaii southward to central Polynesia, westward through Micronesia and Melanesia, through the East Indies, and into the Indian Ocean as far a Ceylon.

So here’s our questions:  Can you tell us what kind of fish this is and also tell us what the males due to entice females to lay their eggs in his territory?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Wow, for only providing a picture where you could only see the head of this little fish, we got lots of amazing (and interesting) answers.  The fish we featured is known as a “Blennie”.  Blennies are small bottom-dwelling fish of rocky coasts and shorelines, particularly common in rockpools.

There are approximately 833 species of Blennies which range from the common type (known also as “shanny”) which average  about 12″ in length, up to the fierce looking “wolf-fish blennie” which can get up to 6-feet in length.  The more common ones are those typically found in the pet trade.

Male Blennies displays an elaborate courtship behavior, some even change colors during mating season.  The male waits until a female swims by and then he positions himself on the rocky bottom and props himself up and rocks from side to side while nodding his head repeatedly to attract her attention.  Once she is convinced he is the proper suitor, she lays her egg for him to fertilize.  As soon as she is done, the male chases the female away and starts looking for the next female to swim by so he can repeat the process all over.  Males have been know to fertilize up to 4-sets of eggs at one time from 4 different females.

Here is more facts about these fish: Blennies

Thanks for playing along 😉