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Emblemaria pandionis

Sailfin Blenny
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

There are no photos available for this taxon yet.

Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri) Chaenopsidae (Tube Blennies) Emblemaria Emblemaria pandionis (Sailfin Blenny)

Description

This species account was compiled from FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.) and processed using AI-assisted text extraction. It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting. When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page. Learn more about our species accounts.

Characters

Body shape: elongated. Female light tan with scattered small pale spots and dark flecks; dorsal fin with diagonal broken dark lines anteriorly; males darker in general, especially the outer half of the spinous portion of the dorsal fin (Ref. 13442). Palatine teeth 10-12 (Ref. 47837).

Distribution

Western Atlantic: Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and northern Gulf of Mexico (Florida and Texas, USA) to northern South America.

Habitat Associations

Marine. reef-associated. depth range 1-12 m. Found in: coral reefs.

Biology

Inhabits areas with clear water, from rocky shores to coral reefs. Often lives in empty worm holes, coral rubble, or edges of channels where holes are available. Shy, leaves hole only for brief periods (Ref. 9710).
Max length: 6.0 cm SL.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2007-10-18. Resilience: High.

Commercial or Environmental Importance

Fisheries: commercial; aquarium: commercial.

References

Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray (1986) A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p.
Lieske, E. and R. Myers (1994) Collins Pocket Guide. Coral reef fishes. Indo-Pacific & Caribbean including the Red Sea. Haper Collins Publishers, 400 p.
Randall, J.E. (1996) Caribbean reef fishes. Third Edition - revised and enlarged. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ltd., Hong Kong. 3nd ed. 368 p.
Pattengill, C.V., B.X. Semmens and S.R. Gittings (1997) Reef fish trophic structure at the Flower Gardens and Stetson Bank, NW Gulf of Mexico. Proc. 8th Int. Coral Reef Sym. 1:1023-1028.
Ramos, R.T.C., C.R. Rocha and L.A. Rocha (2003) New species of Emblemaria (Teleostei: Chaenopsidae) from northern Brazil. Copeia 2003(1):95-98.
Williams, J.T. (2003) Chaenopsidae. Tubeblennies. p. 1761-1767. In K.E. Carpenter (ed.) FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Vol. 3: Bony fishes part 2 (Opistognathidae to Molidae), sea turtles and marine mammals.

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