Christmas Blenny?

Has anyone ever heard of a Christmas Blenny? I saw one Sunday when dragonwrasse showed us around to the fish stores in Jersey. He was similar to a lawnmower without the broad dorsal fin....only he was white with red and green spots! I didn't buy him - $50 was a bit steep - but I want one for our tank. Anyone seen one of these and/or know the scientific name?

did ya call fishtownusa?

I've heard mixed things about them. Absolutely Fish in Clifton, NJ used to have one in their display tank, and they told me it at nipped at the corals and they wanted to get it out. It was just about impossible to catch, though. I know of someone else on reefcentral who has had one for a few months with no problems. I believe either liveaquaria.com or marinedepotlive.com sells them, but they give them a different common name. I believe they call them "orange jeweled blennies."

Alot of fish are called by many difference names. When the wholesalers or weighing stations get the fish they can't always identify them so they give them different names. Store will use the name that comes on the shipping doc. sometimes.

It probably best to do a search on Blenny and see if you can id the one you saw.

Michael

Hi Missy. So, I got interested and looked in my books. Even pulled out the Marine Fish Atlas (the most worthless book I ever bought). Closest I saw was red spotted blenny (istiblennius chrysospilos in Scott Michael's book). Don't know.

Don't think Fishtown will carry it. They tend to get big shipments of same species. I'll keep an eye out for Chrissy or Nick as well as Leo or Simba the next time I'm there.

Thanks guys. I've looked online and can't ID it. Thanks also for the warning about nipping at corals. Hitsnorth would kill me if I put another thing in our tank that destroyed them (ahem - anyone want an 8 inch blue spiney lobster?)

Pete - that is also the closest I've come....only the one we saw had green spots too....

Yeah well - I'll stick with the fish I know for now...

The species I've seen referred to as "Christmas blenny" is istiblennius chrysospilos. Although the spots are primarily red, there is a hint of green around them, too.