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Species: Chaenopsis alepidota, Orange-throat pike-blenny

All Families:   All Genera:   All Species:

male: orange throat, black D
D: 34-36
female: front D- black spot
back and sides - several rows white spots
center roof of mouth with teeth
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.


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Salinity
  • Marine
  • Marine Only
Inshore/Offshore
  • Inshore Only
  • Inshore
Water Column Position
  • Bottom only
  • Bottom
Habitat
  • Soft bottom only
  • Barnacles & worm tubes
  • Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
  • Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
  • Sand & gravel
FishBase Habitat
  • Demersal
Feeding Group
  • Carnivore
  • Data
Diet
  • Data
  • Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
  • Mobile benthic worms
Egg Type
  • Benthic
  • No data
  • Pelagic larva
Global Endemism
  • Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) endemic
  • All species
  • East Pacific endemic
Regional Endemism
  • Continent only
  • Continental TEP endemic
  • TEP endemic
  • Cortez province endemic
  • Continent
  • All species
Residency
  • Resident
Climate Zone
  • Northern Subtropical (Cortez Province + Sinaloan Gap)
  • North Temperate (Californian Province &/or Northern Gulf of California)
IUCN Red List
  • Least concern
  • Listed
CITES
  • Not listed
Length Max
  • 15
Depth Range Min
  • 1
Depth Range Max
  • 25