The blue dot triplefin, ''Notoclinops caerulepunctus'', is a fish in the genus ''
Notoclinops'', found around offshore islands and exposed headlands of the eastern side of
Northland, and the
Bay of Plenty
The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runawa ...
, on the
North Island
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...
of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
from depths of a metre or so to about 30 m, most common in
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...
areas of broken rock. Its length is only up to about 5 cm and it is the smallest of the
triplefin
Threefin or triplefin blennies are blenniiforms, small percomorph marine fish of the family Tripterygiidae. Found in tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, the family contains about 150 species in 30 genera. Th ...
s in New Zealand.
The blue dot triplefin's head is yellow-orange covered with large bright red spots back as far as the first
dorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...
. On the upper half of the rest of the body are a series of dark blue-black square areas, with an
iridescent
Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfl ...
blue spot joining each pair of squares. These dots are often the only thing seen when the fish is resting on rocks covered in colourful encrusting life. It is known to remove
parasite
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...
s from large fishes.
References
*
* Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, ''Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand'', (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2237133
Blue dot triplefin
The blue dot triplefin, ''Notoclinops caerulepunctus'', is a fish in the genus ''Notoclinops'', found around offshore islands and exposed headlands of the eastern side of Northland Region, Northland, and the Bay of Plenty, on the North Island of ...
Endemic marine fish of New Zealand
Fish described in 1989