Black-faced blenny

Tripterygion delaisi

The black-faced blenny is a species of fish in the family Tripterygiidae, the threefin blennies. It is widespread in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea from the English Channel to the coast of western Africa as far south as Senegal.
Black-faced blenny - Tripterygion delaisi Why black-faced but not black-faced? In the mating season, males have a brightly coloured yellow body, blue edged fins and jet black heads. Females and non territorial males (out of the breeding season) are grey-brown (or reddish) with vertical dark bars. Females have the ability to mimic their background. https://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/detail/1553 This means I still have to catch an image of a horny male to really document this species and justify the black-faced name. Absolutely pending in my diving agenda! :-D Black-faced blenny,Geotagged,Spain,Summer,Tripterygion delaisi

Appearance

This species is up to 6 centimeters long. It lives in crevices at depths of 5 to 40 meters. It feeds on micro-crustaceans. When threatened it freezes rather than swimming away, relying on its cryptic color patterning to disguise it against the substrate.

This fish has bright red fluorescent irises in its eyes which it can regulate quickly, making them brighter or duller.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionChordata
ClassActinopterygii
OrderBlenniiformes
FamilyTripterygiidae
GenusTripterygion
SpeciesT. delaisi
Photographed in
Spain
Italy