Species: Brockius nigricinctus, Spotcheek blenny
opercular ocellus strong
C black + white bar
Brockius nigricinctus Howell Rivero, 1936
Spotcheek blenny
Body robust; head relatively slender, snout pointed; eye large; a branched cirrus over each eye, 2 or more heavily branched cirri on each side of nape; mouth large, slightly oblique, rear of top jawbone exposed, not in a sheath; patches of small teeth behind outer row of large teeth on upper jaw; teeth absent on sides of roof of mouth; 10-11 (9-12) gill rakers; large fish with more than 2 pores at tip of chin; notch between spines and rays of dorsal fin, XVII-XIX, 1st spine short, middle spines longest, 10-12; anal fin II, usually 18; pelvic fins with 1 internal spine, 3 soft rays, 3rd ray vestigial, inserted before pectoral base; all fin rays unbranched; 40-44 lateral line scales; lateral line tubes or canals at least on front of body; smooth scales on rear of body.
Body with 6-8 broad blackish bars that extend onto dorsal and anal fins, a well developed black centered ocellus on operculum, a white stripe up center of snout; a dark stripe from snout through eye to edge of operculum; tail fin dark, with a white bar at its base and a white edge at end. Large males with most of body and dorsal, tail and anal fins bright red. Females & small males with a similar patterning but body barring is brown.
Reaches 6.7 cm.
Found in a mixture of clearwater rocky habitats, from tide pools, to rocks on sand to patch reefs to eroded limestone slopes.
Depth range: 0-11 m.
Florida to the S Caribbean.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore Only
- Inshore
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- Reef only
- Rocks
- Corals
- FishBase Habitat
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- Reef Associated
- Feeding Group
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- Carnivore
- Data
- Diet
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- Bony fishes
- Data
- Mobile benthic worms
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
- Sea-stars/cucumbers/urchins
- Egg Type
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- Pelagic larva
- Data
- Benthic
- Global Endemism
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- All species.
- West Atlantic Endemic
- Greater Caribbean endemic
- Regional Endemism
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- Continent + Island (s)
- GC endemic
- Island (s)
- All species..
- Continent
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Tropical (10-23N, Nicaragua / Cuba)
- Equatorial (0-10N, Costa Rica / Venezuela)
- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- IUCN Red List
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- Listed
- Least concern
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 6.7
- Depth Range Min
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- 0
- Depth Range Max
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- 11
