Species: Acanthemblemaria balanorum, Club-head barnacle-blenny
forehead: club spines
Acanthemblemaria balanorum Brock, 1940
Club-head barnacle-blenny
Body elongate; short blunt head; spines on snout & under eye, bony club-like spines or tubercles on frontal bones in two triangular patches separated on middle of head by narrow spineless groove, spines large, blunt, expanded at tips, almost bridging spineless gap on midinterorbital; cirri on nostrils, over eyes (1 pair, unbranched), but not on nape; 2 rows of well-developed teeth on side of roof of mouth; dorsal XXIV, 13; anal II, 24-25; pectoral 13.
Tan; head and jaws purplish to red, a cream bar across side of lower jaw under eye, cream marks behind and below eye; mid-side with a row of 6-8 large dark brown to blackish spots with adjacent pale dashes along middle of sides; mating males with front of head dark red, rear of head and front of body black.
Size: attains 4.5 cm.
Habitat: lives exclusively in empty barnacle shells on rocky reefs.
Depth: 0-5 m.
The SW and central eastern Gulf of California to southern Mexico, and SE Panama to northern Ecuador.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
-
- Marine Only
- Marine
- Inshore/Offshore
-
- Inshore Only
- Inshore
- Water Column Position
-
- Bottom only
- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Reef only
- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
- Rocks
- Barnacles & worm tubes
- FishBase Habitat
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- Reef Associated
- Feeding Group
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- Planktivore
- Data
- Carnivore
- Diet
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- Zooplankton
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Data
- Egg Type
-
- No data
- Benthic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
-
- All species
- Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) endemic
- East Pacific endemic
- Regional Endemism
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- Continent only
- 3 provinces (Cortez + Mexican + Panamic) endemic
- All species
- Continental TEP endemic
- Continent
- TEP endemic
- Residency
-
- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Equatorial (Costa Rica to Ecuador + Galapagos, Clipperton, Cocos, Malpelo)
- Northern Subtropical (Cortez Province + Sinaloan Gap)
- Northern Tropical (Mexican Province to Nicaragua + Revillagigedos)
- IUCN Red List
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- Least concern
- Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 4.5
- Depth Range Min
-
- 0
- Depth Range Max
-
- 5
