Angel Blenny, Coralliozetus angelicus
Angel Blenny, Coralliozetus angelicus, Females. Underwater photographs taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, December 2019, January 2020 and February 2022. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.
Angel Blenny, Coralliozetus angelicus, Males. Underwater photographs taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, in calendar 2018, 2019 and 2022. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.
The Angel Blenny, Coralliozetus angelicus, is a member of the Tube Blenny or Chaenopsidae Family, that is known in Mexico as tubícola ángel. Globally, there are six species in the genus Coralliozetus, of which four are found in Mexican waters, all in the Pacific Ocean.
The Angel Blenny has an elongated robust body. They are yellowish white overall with diffused brown blotches or spots. They are dimorphic with males having a dark brown head, a long jaw, high and spiny dorsal fins, a red mouth, red irises, and yellow eye cirri. Females have a white head with brown markings, brown bars on their chin and throat, and prominent brown marks at the base of their pectoral fins. Males blue front dorsal fins. Their head is short and blunt with a pointed snout and no spines on top. They have a simple cirrus at the nostrils; males also have long and fleshy yellow cirri above their eyes; females have short and slender cirri above their eyes. They have 1 row of teeth on each side of the roof of their mouth. Their anal fin has 2 spines and 19 or 20 rays; their first dorsal fin has 17 to 20 spines and is higher in the front; their second dorsal fin has 10 to 12 rays; and, their pectoral and pelvic fins are large.
The Angel Blenny is a coastal shallow water species found in empty barnacle shells or in the tubes of certain worms and mollusks in and around rocky reefs at depths up to 5 m (15 feet). They reach a maximum of 3.5 cm (1.4 inches) in length. They are highly territorial predators that are active diurnally and feed mostly on zooplankton and benthic crustaceans, including small crabs. Reproduction is oviparous with females depositing eggs in protected areas which are guarded by males until hatching. The Angle Blenny is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Angel Blenny is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean but has a limited distribution being found only in the lower two-thirds of the Sea of Cortez and along the coast of the mainland south to Guatemala; they are absent from the west coast of Baja and the northern portions of the Sea of Cortez.
The Angel Blenny are a straightforward identification due to the large colorful simple eye circus of the males and the large brown spots on the throat of the females.
From a conservation perspective the Angle Blenny is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. Due to their size they are of limited interest to most with the exception of underwater photographers but they are small in stature and difficult to photograph noting that the collection of photographs presented above are the best in the world for this species.