Small bottom fish with a blunt head and, in many species, a fringe over the eyes. Told from gobies by the pelvic fins, which are separate rather than fused into a disc, and by sitting propped up rather than lying flat.
The tube blennies live in an abandoned worm tube or a hole in coral with only the head out, and the sailfin blenny shoots out of its tube several times a minute to raise a dorsal fin as tall as the fish. Both behaviours are a display to neighbours, and both are done on a schedule, so the way to photograph one is to find it, frame the hole and wait.
The fangblennies carry venom in grooved lower canines, which is unusual in a fish that small. The venom is not dangerous to a diver; its effect on a fish that has swallowed one is to make it open its mouth again.
Several are mimics. The false cleanerfish copies the cleaner wrasse closely enough to be allowed in, and then takes a bite out of the fish that came to be cleaned.
Every one has a page. They are shown as a list rather than as pictures because nothing has been photographed or logged for them yet, and a species with nothing behind it should not sit in front of one that has.
How many of the 26 carry a record at each destination. A species usually carries several, so these do not add up to 26.
All 1316 species in one index, with filters for destination, rarity and hazard.
