Rock Pool Fish

Blenny (Common)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:32:14 +0000

The Common Blenny is a fish that is also known as the Shanny and is very common around the rocky shores of England. It can also be found hiding under rocks and crannies in rock pools when the tide is out. It is also known as the Sea Frog because it basks in the sun on weeds outside the water and quickly jumps back in when it is disturbed, just like a frog does. This fish is able to breathe out of water for as long as its skin stays moist.

The Common Blenny is about sixteen centimetres in length and has a scaleless skin with a layer of soft slime over it. The slime stops it from drying out if it gets stranded on a beach between tides. It can be a grey, olive-green or brown colour with dark markings and can change its colours to match its surroundings. The male Common Blenny turns almost black between April and August.

The female Common Blenny lays her eggs in crevices or under stones in the water and the male guards the eggs until they hatch. The Common Blenny is a bold fish that will bite humans with its strong teeth if it feels threatened or frightened.

Butterfish

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:32:05 +0000

The Butterfish is a long slim eel-like fish that can be found all around the English coastline. It prefers to live near the sea shore just below low tide level where it hides underneath boulders, stones and amongst seaweed. It has a very slippery skin which makes it almost impossible to pick up and for this reason it is called the ‘Butterfish’.

The Butterfish can reach a length of around twenty-five centimetres and its body is a yellowy brown colour with lots of dark markings. It can easily be recognised because it has nine to fifteen black oval-shaped spots running down its back and a dark line that runs under each eye. It has a long spiny fin that runs along the length of its back. This fin is called the ‘dorsal’ fin and consists of around seventy to eighty little spines.

The female Butterfish lays her eggs in winter and both the male and the female take it in turns to curl their bodies around the eggs to protect and guard them. Butterfish are also known as Rock Eels because of their eel-like appearance. They mainly eat marine worms and small crustaceans.

Goby (Rock)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:32:39 +0000

The Goby Rock is a small fish that can be found around the south and west coasts of England where it hides under stones and seaweed. It can also be found in rock pools when the tide is out. It is often mistaken for the Common Blenny which is also found in rock pools, even though the Common Blenny has a scaleless slimy body and the Goby Rock has a body covered with scales.

The Goby Rock is about twelve centimetres in length and is black with lots of white blotches over its body making it look almost grey in water. It also has pale grey-white edges on its side fins. It has quite a large rounded head and large eyes that are set quite high up on its head and it also turns black in March to June, just like the Common Blenny.

The female Goby Rock lays her eggs on the underside of boulders, rocks and shells from March to June and then leaves them. The male looks after the eggs by guarding and protecting them until they hatch. Young Goby Rock in their first year can often be found in rock pools in winter when all the other older fish have left.

Lumpsucker

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:33:07 +0000

The Lumpsucker is a scaleless fish that is also known as the Lumpfish and is quite common in the northern waters of England. It spends a lot of time on the bottom of the seabed, but it does move to rocky shallow waters in late winter and early spring to spawn.

The Lumpsucker has an appropriate name because its body is covered in lots of little lumps. It also has a large sucking disc on the underside of its body which it uses to cling onto surfaces. The Lumpsucker can reach lengths of between thirty to fifty centimetres and its body is almost spherical-shaped. It is normally a blue to slate-grey colour, but the male changes to a red, pink and yellow in the spawning season.

The female Lumpsucker lays her eggs on rocks and then leaves shortly afterwards. The male takes over the responsibility of the eggs by clamping itself onto a rock to guard and cover the eggs. When the young hatch out, they look like tiny tadpoles. They usually stay in shallow water or rock pools until they grow bigger. They are often difficult to spot because they hide in between seaweed and rocks.

Pipefish (Worm)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:33:29 +0000

The Worm Pipefish is a fish that has a smooth worm-looking body shaped like a thin pipe and this is why it has its name the ‘Worm Pipefish’. It is related to the Seahorse family and like the seahorse it has a long snout with a small upward-curved mouth. It can be found around most shores of England, especially in the south-west. It can also be found in rock pools hiding under stones or amongst seaweed.

The Worm Pipefish can grow up to fifteen centimetres long and is a dark brown or a dark green colour on top. The underpart is a paler brown or green. It has a fin on its back called a ‘dorsal’ fin and this fin helps the pipefish to move through water. The Worm Pipefish lives in seaweed beds or under boulders in rocky inshore waters and it could easily be mistaken for a brown strip of seaweed when it hides near rocks.

The male Worm Pipefish, like the male seahorse, looks after and protects the female’s eggs. The female Worm Pipefish transfers her eggs into a brood pouch on the male’s belly where they remain until the young have developed and hatched out.

Sea Scorpion (Long-spined)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:33:55 +0000

The Long-spined Sea Scorpion is a small stout-looking fish that has spiny fins and one long spine on either side of its face. It is also known as the ‘Bullhead’ because it has quite a large broad head. It can be found all around the coasts of England in shallow rocky waters, especially amongst algae or seaweed. It can also be found in rock pools and sometimes in waters as deep as thirty metres.

The Long-spined Sea Scorpion grows up to around twenty centimetres in length and can be a brown, cream, orange or red colour with darker blotches all over its body. It is often well-camouflaged because it can change its body colour to match its surroundings. It has two large black eyes and a large mouth. It also has a finger-like organ on each side of its mouth to help it to catch food. It has two fins on its back which are called ‘dorsal’ fins and fins on its sides which are known as ‘pectoral’ fins.

Long-spined Sea Scorpions lay orange coloured eggs around February to April. The eggs are often attached to rock crevices or amongst seaweed and the young usually hatch out approximately two to three weeks after the eggs have been laid. The young go through several stages of development before they mature into adult Long-spined Sea Scorpions.