Unknown goby/blenny from Little Cayman

[Puffer Fish]

http://Already know this is not a common species...but to ID it, need a more lateral view. If anyone has one, please post.

Was taken in around 45 ft of water, on the non-wall side of the island. Just under 1 inch in length.

While it looks a lot like a goby, the continuous dorsal fin would make it most likely some sort of Blenny.






http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/s...om/gallery/data/500/thumbs/1020080.jpg[/img][

Here is a link to a larger (and correct color) image.

 

[knotical]

I’ll put my nickel on one of the several similar appearing Emblemariopsis spp. (juvenile or female)
cf. in the Humann / DeLoach book Darkheaded Blenny.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Knotical...That family was the best we could come up with also.. (that listing is sort of a catch-all for a bunch of blennies). One would think, with such an easy to ID appearance, that this one would have a name.

 

[octopuppy]

You might checkin with blennywatcher.com

 

[Puffer Fish]

You might checkin with blennywatcher.com

I am always surprised that there are sites dedicated to a specific family of marine life.. this one however is just a blog about lots of different marine animals and not so much blennies. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[DollyJeb]

Probably Emblemariopsis reutzleri blenny. There are 5-6 sp. of Emblemariopsis blennies in Cayman and actually are fairly common when you start to look for them. They are quite frequently on brain ans star corals. In our experience the E.reutzleri tend to be a bit shallower than the others any where from 10 feet to 30 feet. they have a green gold coloration. Most of the others are a variation of red and have similar sizes and shapes. There is an E.bahamensis that is in Cayman but not as common as the others. It is a bit bigger and heavier in the body. We spent a lot of time photographing these in 2010 ans 2011 in Cayman for Ben Victor. He supplied us with info and id's and has published several papers on these interesting little fish.

 

[Puffer Fish]

DollyJeb, Thanks a ton. Cannot find any images of it, but I would not expect it to be rare, just not clearly identified.

---------- Post added November 20th, 2012 at 10:24 AM ----------

Probably Emblemariopsis reutzleri blenny. There are 5-6 sp. of Emblemariopsis blennies in Cayman and actually are fairly common when you start to look for them. They are quite frequently on brain ans star corals. In our experience the E.reutzleri tend to be a bit shallower than the others any where from 10 feet to 30 feet. they have a green gold coloration. Most of the others are a variation of red and have similar sizes and shapes. There is an E.bahamensis that is in Cayman but not as common as the others. It is a bit bigger and heavier in the body. We spent a lot of time photographing these in 2010 ans 2011 in Cayman for Ben Victor. He supplied us with info and id's and has published several papers on these interesting little fish.

Do you have any images of this species? Dr Roberson did find one from Ben, but it is clearly not the same as the image I have. Besides the pink color, it has a long first spine on it's dorsal fin, which this one clearly does not.

 

[DollyJeb]

The first is E.bahamensis and I think my only photo, the others are a few of E.ruetzleri . Apparently most or all Emblemariopsis sp the male becomes a blackhead. They are seen usually sitting in a little coral hole, guarding it. They are very shy and hard to get photos of out of the hole, although we have a few.

 

[DollyJeb]

Found some more E.bhamensis. Originally thought yours looked like E. ruetzleri but does look more the E. bhamensis. I am far from any expert and as Ben told us you really need DNA to be sure. A job for someone else!

 

[Puffer Fish]

DollyJeb, Thanks for posting. My guess is that several of your E. bahamensis appear to be the same species (or very closely related) to my image. Emblemariopsis is not a very well researched family, and if I understand correctly, it is not known exactly how many species there are or if yours actually is E. bahamensis. I understand why the Reef book just lumps a bunch of them together.

From what I can find, this species is unique to the Cayman Islands and most likely is either an unnamed species or has a very unique color version.

Mine is obviously a female, but I could not find any males...did you see any? All of yours appear to be females...if it is E. hahamensis.

A good guess would be is that, like triple fins, there are a lot more species out there than have been named.