Common Name: Rippled Rockskipper

Distribution: Common in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region: from the Red Sea and East Africa to the Line, Marquesan, and Tuamoto islands, north to southern Japan, south to Lord Howe Is. Found throughout northern Australia, from Shark Bay in Western Australia to Queensland and south to northern New South Wales on the east coast, and including Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands.

Ecological Notes: Frequents intertidal areas, rock pools and areas with broken rock and rubble.  Depth from 0 to 5 m.

Additional Notes: Brown body colour with distinct banding along body, uncomplicated filaments above each eye and may have fleshy ridge on top of head. Similar Istiblennius meleagris inhabits similar habitat, has more complex filaments above the eye and often has small bluish-white spots along sides. Feeds on filamentous algae, may remain out of water on rocks and seaweeds. Eggs are demersal and are attached to the substrate, larvae are planktonic and often found in shallow coastal waters. Grows to 16 cm. 

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.373.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=Istiblennius+edentulus. Accessed 02/06/18.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/Istiblennius-edentulus.html. Accessed 02/06/18.