Species: Chaenopsis alepidota, Orange-throat pike-blenny
female: front D- black spot
tongue long
Chaenopsis alepidota (Gilbert, 1890)
Orange-throat pike-blenny
Body very elongate; head long; no cirri on head; snout long & strongly pointed; long mouth, usually reaching far behind eye, tip of lower jaw projecting; first 3 mandibular pores (counting from front of jaw) equally spaced; at least a few teeth on front of roof of mouth, tip of tongue extends forward at least as far as those teeth; dorsal fin XVIII-XX, 34-36, front half of fin moderately elevated in adult males; anal rays II, 34-37; pectoral rays 12-13; tail fin rounded, joined to dorsal and anal fins.
Pale green with a longitudinal row of white spots along mid-side and another along base of the dorsal fin; 8-10 dark brown to green bars usually evident on side; male with black dorsal fin; blue-grey belly; blue-grey spots on body; black chin and throat and an orange stripe from the rear of the mouth across the operculum.
Size: to 15 cm.
Inhabits worm tubes on sand-rubble bottoms.
Depth: 1-25 m.
Southern California; the western and NE Gulf of California.
There are two subspecies, C. a. alepidota from the Gulf of California and C. alepidota californiensis, from California and northern Baja.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
-
- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
-
- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
-
- Bottom
- Bottom only
- Habitat
-
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Sand & gravel
- Soft bottom only
- Barnacles & worm tubes
- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- FishBase Habitat
-
- Demersal
- Feeding Group
-
- Data
- Carnivore
- Diet
-
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Mobile benthic worms
- Data
- Egg Type
-
- No data
- Pelagic larva
- Benthic
- Global Endemism
-
- Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) endemic
- All species
- East Pacific endemic
- Regional Endemism
-
- TEP endemic
- Cortez province endemic
- Continent
- All species
- Continent only
- Continental TEP endemic
- Residency
-
- Resident
- Climate Zone
-
- Northern Subtropical (Cortez Province + Sinaloan Gap)
- North Temperate (Californian Province &/or Northern Gulf of California)
- IUCN Red List
-
- Listed
- Least concern
- CITES
-
- Not listed
- Length Max
-
- 15
- Depth Range Min
-
- 1
- Depth Range Max
-
- 25
