Aspidontus taeniatus
False cleanerfish | Cleaner Mimic | Mimic Blenny | Striped Blenny
Same Genus
Distribution
Temperate Australasia, Tropical Indo-Pacific
Description
Black stripe from snout through eye and expanding towards tail, above and below white/grey on for body and blue on rear of body and tail. Mimics Labroides dimidiatus (Common Cleanerfish) almost perfectly, but mouth is on underside of snout. Mimics this species to approach larger fishes and nip pieces of skin and scales off for food.
Information
Max Size: 12 cm
Sea Temperature Range: 16-31.3°C
Depth: 1-25m
Habitat Generalization Index: 1.39
Also referred to as the SGI (Species Generalisation Index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here.
Conservation and Rarity
IUCN Status: Not Evaluated
Occurrence: Infrequent (3.4% of sites)
Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
Abundance: Solitary (1 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
Edit by: Joe Shields