Blenny ID

Hey all

The picture is from Gordon beach, Tel Aviv, Israel, depth of about 4-8m.

I can't decide if it's Parablennius incognitus or Parablennius zvonimiri?

The eye (iris) color patterns and the geography both favor Parablennus zvonimiri.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvonimir's_blenny

It is not easy to determine by this photo...

I have here the determination book on Mediterranean fish by Patrick Louisy (German edition). According to this P. zvonimiri has 6-8 small white spots on the back and 3-5 tentacles over the eye. P. incognitus has 4-5 tentacles, the first one beeing the longest, and has dark, larger, spots on the back that have the form of a hourglass. Louisy does not state anything about iris patterns..

From your photo I see that the first tentacle is the longest (but I count only 2 and 3) and in the out of focus area I can see the hourglass shaped spots. Maybe you have more photos?

Wolfgang

1 minute ago, Architeuthis said:

It is not easy to determine by this photo...

I have here the determination book on Mediterranean fish by Patrick Louisy (German edition). According to this P. zvonimiri has 6-8 small white spots on the back and 3-5 tentacles over the eye. P. incognitus has 4-5 tentacles, the first one beeing the longest, and has dark, larger, spots on the back that have the form of a hourglass. Louisy does not state anything about iris patterns..

From your photo I see that the first tentacle is the longest (but I count only 2 and 3) and in the out of focus area I can see the hourglass shaped spots. Maybe you have more photos?

 

Wolfgang

 

Hey

Unfortunately this is the only picture I have.

Now I had a look at Rupert Riedl's book (Fauna and Flora of the Mediterranean), a very extensive book...

He says that P. zvonimiri and P. incognitus are very similar. Discrimination criteria, according to him, are: P. zvonimiri has the tentacle over the eye originating in one stem and then it branches. In addition, it has more, small and single, tentacles behind this tentacle over and inbetween the eyes. The male P. incognitus has long supraorbital tentacles, the females have short ones. No additional interorbital tentacles. In addition a single bunch of tentacles at the front opening of the nose (P. zvonimiri has several, single tentacles at the upper opening of the nose)...

=> based on the photo, I would say a female P. incognitus...

Wolfgang