Plagiotremus tapeinosoma
Hit and run blenny | Mimic Blenny | Piano Blenny | Piano Fangblenny | Scale-eating Blenny | Scale-eating Fangblenny | Slender Blenny
Distribution
Temperate Africa, Temperate Australasia, Temperate northern Pacific, Tropical Indo-Pacific
Description
Slender elongate body, dark upper body with a white underside and a thin white stripe along back. Below white stripe, dark colouring breaks into a series of short vertical bars like piano keys. Moves with sinuous swimming motion, often approaching divers. By luck or design, this species is a close mimic of the eastern hulafish and often lives in vicinity of schools of that species.
Information
Max Size: 14 cm
Sea Temperature Range: 15.8-30.4°C
Depth: 2-20m
Habitat Generalization Index: 21.07
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: Common (25.3% 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 (3 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
Edit by: GJ Edgar. 2008. Australian Marine Life. New Holland, Sydney