Cirripectes castaneus

Chestnut Blenny | Chestnut Eyelash-blenny | Spotted-chin Blenny

Cirripectes castaneus, Red Sea, Photo: Rick Stuart-Smith

Cirripectes castaneus, adult, NSW, Australia, Photo: Ian Shaw

Cirripectes castaneus, NSW, Australia, Photo: Ian Shaw

Cirripectes castaneus, QLD, Australia, Photo: Rick Stuart-Smith

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Distribution

Tropical Indo-Pacific

Description

Blunt head and relatively heavy body. Base colour variable brown. Head with dark oblique bars edged with red, which may continue onto body as bars or large spots. Fringe-like line of cirri on nape and eye reddish. Usually on reef crests and surge zones of reefs. Like most Cirripectes species, sits motionless on reef until approached then rapidly darts for cover making identification difficult.

Information

Max Size: 13 cm

Sea Temperature Range: 22.5-30.8°C

Depth: 0-32m

Habitat Generalization Index: 2.81

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 (6.8% 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: Few (4 per transect)

Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.

Edit by: Joe Shields

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Further Information

Atlas of Living Australia IUCN Red List FishBase