Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos (Blue-lined Sabertooth Blenny)

''Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos'', commonly called the bluestriped fangblenny, is a species of

combtooth blenny Combtooth blennies are blenniiformids; percomorph marine fish of the family Blenniidae, part of the order Blenniiformes. They are the largest family of blennies with around 401 known species in 58 genera. Combtooth blennies are found in tropic ...

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

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 continen ...

and

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 ...

. This species reaches a length of SL. It is also known as the ''bluestriped blenny'', ''bluestriped sabretooth blenny'', ''blunt-nose blenny'', ''cleaner mimic'', ''tube-worm blenny'' or the ''two-stripe blenny''. They hide in deserted worm tubes or other small holes. The fangblenny is a specialised

mimic MIMIC, known in capitalized form only, is a former simulation computer language developed 1964 by H. E. Petersen, F. J. Sansom and L. M. Warshawsky of Systems Engineering Group within the Air Force Materiel Command at the Wright-Patterson AFB in ...

of juvenile

bluestreak cleaner wrasse The bluestreak cleaner wrasse, ''Labroides dimidiatus'', is one of several species of cleaner wrasses found on coral reefs from Eastern Africa and the Red Sea to French Polynesia. Like other cleaner wrasses, it eats parasites and dead tissue o ...

. Those fish serve as cleaners to larger host fish, which attend to have

ectoparasite 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 removed. The fangblenny does no cleaning, but bites the host fish and leaves. Its

opioid Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Other medical uses include suppression of diarrhea, replacement therapy for opioid us ...

-containing

venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

helps it escape, as it gives a pain-free bite which also dulls the host's reactions.

Description

From before birth, their eggs are demersal and adhesive and attach to substrates via a filamentous adhesive pad or pedestal. The bluestriped fangblenny can attain around 90mm in length. Two distinct colour phases of this fish are present; blue with a black stripe from snout to tail, or orange with two narrow blue lines from snout to tail. Unlike most blennies, the bluestriped fangblenny is free swimming. Adults inhabit clear, coral-rich areas of lagoon and seaward reefs and it is fairly common on both coral and rocky reefs, usually occurring singly or in pairs. They are known for being aggressive and feed on skin, mucus and sometimes other fish scales. They bite divers when alarmed.

Aggressive mimicry

Bluestriped fangblenny

the juvenile

, ''

Labroides dimidiatus The bluestreak cleaner wrasse, ''Labroides dimidiatus'', is one of several species of cleaner wrasses found on coral reefs from Eastern Africa and the Red Sea to French Polynesia. Like other cleaner wrasses, it eats parasites and dead tissue o ...

'', to enable them to loiter at cleaner stations and dupe clients waiting to be cleaned. Their success in this

aggressive mimicry Aggressive mimicry is a form of mimicry in which predators, parasites, or parasitoids share similar signals, using a harmless model, allowing them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host. Zoologists have repeatedly compared t ...

is, like

Batesian mimicry Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, after his work on bu ...

, frequency-dependent: it works best when the mimic is rare compared to the genuinely symbiotic

cleaner fish Cleaner fish are fish that show a specialist feeding strategy by providing a service to other species, referred to as clients, by removing dead skin, ectoparasites, and infected tissue from the surface or gill chambers. This example of cleaning ...

. The fangblenny has an unusual adaptation for biting and escaping without being pursued: its bite is pain-free, as it has a

containing morphine-like

s, which dulls pain and reduces blood pressure. The fall in the host's blood pressure makes it lose co-ordination, just as a human feels dizzy when blood pressure is low, giving the fangblenny time to escape. This may explain why other coral reef fish mimic the fangblenny.

References

External links

* * Bluestriped Fangblenny @ Fishes of Australia
/small> {{Taxonbar, from=Q578718 bluestriped fangblenny Marine fauna of East Africa Marine fish of Western Australia Marine fish of Eastern Australia Fish of the Pacific Ocean bluestriped fangblenny

Description

Aggressive mimicry

See also

References

External links