The mimic blenny: voracity in red (or brown... or green... oh well...)

 

The world of cryptobenthic fishes is a scary world. To a great extent, this is based on size: if you're the size of a nickel, chances are there's always some nasty predator that wants to eat you and is perfectly capable of doing so. In this context, the mimic blenny, Labrisomus guppyi, is an absolute monster (pic above from http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu). While most cryptos do not attain body sizes longer than 50mm, this portly perciform can reach up to 100mm in body size. Given that the number one rule among fishes is that they will eat anything that fits into their mouths (and sometimes more than that), the mimic blenny's size itself makes him a threat to everything smaller than 50mm (i.e. the majority of gobies, blennies, triplefins, etc). Along with his threatening size, L. guppyi is also equipped with some vicious canine teeth, perfectly suited to holding on to (and tearing apart) practically anything that fits into his mouth (which conveniently expands to about twice its size). To make things worse for the small prey fish, mimic blennies are capable of adapting superbly to their local microhabitat, helping them to blend in seamlessly with the respective substrate. Not only does that make life hard when it comes to identifying L. guppyi (note: never judge a fish by its colors), but it also means that these suckers are so well camouflaged that prey fishes might swim right past them without knowing that they'll be snarfed up within the next few milliseconds. Thus, the mimic blenny truly is a very scary predator -- assuming you're a cryptobenthic fish.

 

Why am I telling you this? First, because a lot of people love scary, ferocious, hungry predators (think Great White Sharks, Lions, Eagles etc). On a slightly different scale, L. guppyi is just that. Second, because this week's amazing reward for contributing to the project ($50 or more) is a fantastic re-print of this Labrisomus guppyi, drawn by Jordan Casey. Pledge now and win the drawing!