The sarcastic fringehead (''Neoclinus blanchardi'') is a small but very hardy saltwater fish that has a large mouth and aggressive territorial behavior, for which it has been given its common name. When two fringeheads have a territorial battle, they wrestle by pressing their distended mouths against each other, as if they were kissing. This allows them to determine which is the larger fish, which establishes dominance. They can be up to long, elegant and slender, and are mostly scaleless with great pectoral fins and reduced pelvic fins. The swimming movements of these fish are complicated. Their swimming consists of short, fast, dart-like movements. They are generally brown in color. Sarcastic fringeheads are a species of tube blenny and tend to hide inside shells or crevices, though some have been found living in man-made objects, such as a soda can. After the female spawns under a rock or in clam burrows, the male guards the eggs. During squid spawning season, they eat large numbers of squid eggs. They are found in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, off the coast of North America, from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, to central

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. Their depth range is from . The specific name honours Dr. S. B. Blanchard of

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

, who collected specimens of this blenny, and passed them on to

Charles Frédéric Girard Charles Frédéric Girard (8 March 1822 – 29 January 1895) was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology. Born in Mulhouse, France, he studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, as a student of Louis Agassiz. I ...

, who described it.

References

External links

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

br>Animal Diversity Web

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1133845

Sarcastic fringehead The sarcastic fringehead (''Neoclinus blanchardi'') is a small but very hardy saltwater fish that has a large mouth and aggressive territorial behavior, for which it has been given its common name. When two fringeheads have a territorial battle ...

Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish described in 1858