The yellow triplefin (''Enneapterygius abeli''),> also known as the Abel's triplefin in South Africa, is a species of

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 ...

in the genus ''

Enneapterygius ''Enneapterygius'' is a genus of fish in the family Tripterygiidae found in the Indian and Pacific Ocean. Species There are currently 63 recognized species in this genus: * '' Enneapterygius abeli'' ( Klausewitz, 1960) (Yellow triplefin) * '' E ...

''. Males in this species can reach a maximum length of 2.5 centimetres. The blennies are generally bright yellow in colour, and males have black heads. They feed mostly on

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

invertebrates. In 1960,

Wolfgang Klausewitz Wolfgang Klausewitz (20 July 1921 – 31 August 2018) was a German zoologist, ichthyologist, marine biologist and biohistorian. Early life Klausewitz was born in Berlin. He attended school in Berlin, then, in 1941, was sent as a soldier to North ...

described the species, originally assigning it to the genus ''

Tripterygion ''Tripterygion'' is a genus of fish in the family (biology), family threefin blenny, Tripterygiidae, the threefin blennies, the species of which are found in the north eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Species * ' ...

'' under "''T. abeli''". It was later reassigned to ''

Helcogramma ''Helcogramma'' is a genus in the triplefin family (biology), family Tripterygiidae. The blennies in the genus ''Helcogramma'' are found throughout the Indo-Pacific and in the South Atlantic Ocean off the islands of St Helena and Ascension Island ...

'', before being reassigned to ''Enneapterygius'' by W. Holleman in 2005. The fish is named in honor of Austrian biologist Erich F. Abel (1919-1995) of the University of Vienna, who worked on the ecology and ethology of fishes of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and who donated the type specimens from the Red Sea to the Senckenberg Museum.

Distribution

The yellow triplefin is a tropical blenny found in coral reefs located in the western Indian Ocean; in the Red Sea, the East African coast,

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

, Mauritius, Seychelles,

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

and St. Brandon Shoals. Due to a lack of major threats to the species, and its wide distribution, the IUCN redlist ranked it as "Least Concern" in 2009.

References

External links

Yellow triplefin
at World Register of Marine Species
Yellow triplefin
at ITIS * Yellow triplefin Taxa named by Wolfgang Klausewitz Fish described in 1960 {{Tripterygiidae-stub