“Blennies found mating” by Steve Reynolds

During a dive at Second Valley, my buddy pointed out a pair of jumping blennies, Lepidoblennius marmoratus, sharing a loving embrace on the cliff face out on the headland. I proceeded to take a series of photos of the two blennies.  A large male would not leave the side of a smaller female. I followed their every move until I thought that I had gathered sufficient photos of the incident.

The whole event took place fairly close to the surface, within a metre or so. The two fish would turn one way, then the other. The male was ‘all over’ the female. He persistently followed her every move, as I tried to do with the two of them.

Most of my ten photos of them turned out fairly satisfactory. There were a couple of disappointments with them, but I present all of them below, in order, for completeness: –

 

According to Wikipedia (and iNaturalist), “Lepidoblennius marmoratus, known commonly as the western jumping blenny, is a species of triplefin blenny ….. described by Macleay in 1878″. Triplefin blennies belong to the Family Tripterygiidae.

By Steve Reynolds

Steve Reynolds is the current President of MLSSA and is a long-standing member of the Society. Steve was a keen diver, underwater explorer & photographer before illness struck. He is chief author of the Society's extensive back catalogue of newsletters and journals.

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