Fishes - Australian Museum Fish Site

Find a Fish

Coral Blenny
Ecsenius yaeyamaensis (Aoyagi, 1954)

Coral Blenny
A Coral Blenny at a depth of 15m, Redang Island, Malaysia, April 2001. View larger image.

The Coral Blenny has a pale body with a row of dark dots and dashes extending from behind the eye. There is a Y-shaped dark mark on the pectoral fin base.

This species grows to 6.5cm in length.

The Coral Blenny is found on coral reefs in sheltered lagoons at depths from 1m to 15m.

It occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-West Pacific, from Sri Lanka, north to Japan, south to Australia and east to Vanuatu.

In Australia the Coral Blenny is known from the north-western coast of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

A similar-looking species, the Great Barrier Reef Blenny E.stictus is found on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.

View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.

Further reading

  1. Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 292.
  2. Allen, G.R. & R. Swainston. 1988. The Marine Fishes of North-Western Australia. A Field Guide for Anglers and Divers. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 201.
  3. Myers, R.F. 1999. Micronesian Reef Fishes. Coral Graphics. Pp. 330.
  4. Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 251. (for E.stictus)
australian museum onlineabout the museumresearch and collectionsfeaturesexplore