This charming little fish, with the expressive face, generally looks as if it is either smiling or puzzled. Unusually small for a blenny, you can see them in temperate waters peering out from crevices in reefs or wrecks.
A large mouth, eyes set high on the head and its tufted tentacles above each eye give the Tompot Blenny (Parablennius gattorugine) a comical appearance. A much smaller fringed tentacle is positioned on the nostril beneath each eye.
The wriggly swimmer
Like all blennies, Tompots lack the buoyancy of a swim bladder and look more like they are wriggling than swimming.
Curious about divers
Tompot blennies are curious fish and may come out to take a closer look at a diver. Some even let themselves be stroked. If you dive the same site regularly, you may see the same Tompot in its hole on each visit.
The male guards the eggs in his ideal home
The male guards the eggs laid by his mate in a particular crevice over several breeding seasons, living in the same location for up to 4 years. He is territorial, defending his patch and recovering from injuries received in disputes over territory. Further observations by Paul Naylor and D. M. P. Jacoby included resident males wiping eggs with greatly expanded anal glands, adult-type fighting between juveniles and unusual behaviour where a large male manipulated an empty mollusc shell for the attention of two smaller tompot blennies.
In the blenny family, males and females each mate with several partners. As the male looks after the eggs, he is as choosey about who he mates with as is the female. Competition between males for a desirable crevice is intense. The ideal residence has an accessible area for the female to lay eggs, with an adjacent narrower area to escape from predators.
Sharp teeth
Sharp teeth means they eat a variety of animals, including sea anemones which are usually left alone by predators.
Tomport blennies live down to around 20 m in north-west Europe from Denmark and Scotland to Portugal and in the Meditteranean Sea. They have also been recorded in the Israeli part of the Mediterranean Sea and in Greece. They are, though, absent from the North Sea.
Further Reading
Great British Marine Animals, by Paul Naylor.
Naylor, Paul. (2018). The Lives and Times of Tompot Blennies. Territorial, agonistic and courtship behaviour in Parablennius gattorugine. 9. 28 to 43.
Bailly, N. (2013). Parablennius gattorugine (Linnaeus, 1758). In: Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. (2013) FishBase. Accessed through: Costello, M.J.; Bouchet, P.; Boxshall, G.; Arvantidis, C.; Appeltans, W. (2013) European Register of Marine Species
Tompot Blenny: Parablennius gattorugine. SCUBA Travel. Accessed 20 April 2023
Image credits:
- tompot blenny: Tim Nicholson