famousfive.org

In a tank full of weird-looking fish, the dot dash blenny (Ecsenius lineatus) is still in with a chance for a prize. His name comes from the dot - dash pattern that runs down his dorsal line. He has two small feelers growing on his nose, his eyes swivel independently, and he can stretch his mouth to quite an enormous size when threatened.

In the early stages of the tank our dot dash blenny lived in holes in the rock, and was often to be seen clearing the sand from them using his mouth. As a juvenile his most stupid adventure was to swim into one of the powerheads while it was switched off for tank maintenance. If I hadn't noticed that he had gone inside and had switched the pump back on, he would have been all dots and dashes!

After a while he started living more in the algae at the back of the tank and behind the heaters and powerheads, possibly because of the number of brisleworms by now occupying the live rock. He seems to stick mosly to a veggie diet, sometimes chomping algae of the inside of the glass leaving little round marks.