''Ecsenius alleni'', known commonly as the Allen's blenny,"Marine fishes of tropical Australia and South-East Asia ''A field guide for anglers and divers''", by Gerald R. Allen, Roger Swainston, Jill Ruse. Published by Australian Museum, 1997 / is a species of combtooth blenny in the genus ''

Ecsenius ''Ecsenius'' is a large genus of fish in the family Blenniidae. Several species, including ''Ecsenius midas'', the Midas blenny, and ''Ecsenius bicolor'', the bicolor blenny, are commonly sold at aquarium stores as pets. Species There are curre ...

''. It is found in

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

s in the eastern

Indian ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, specifically in western

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It can reach a maximum length of 3.4 centimetres. The blennies feed primarily off of plants and

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honours the

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

Gerald R. Allen Gerald Robert "Gerry" Allen (born March 26, 1942 in Los Angeles, California) is an American-born Australian ichthyologist. His career began in 1963, when he spent a semester at the University of Hawaii, where he also received a PhD in marine zo ...

References

alleni Fish described in 1988 Taxa named by Victor G. Springer {{Blenniidae-stub