Common Name: Bluestriped Fangblenny

Distribution: Common throughout the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific region: from South Africa and the Red Sea east to the Line, Marquesan and Society Islands, north to southern Japan, south to Lord Howe Island. In Australia recorded from around Perth north to the North West Shelf region of Western Australia, Torres Strait, the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef in Queensland south to southern New South Wales and including Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands.

Ecological Notes: Frequents clear coral rich areas of lagoons and seaward reefs. Depth to 40 m.

Additional Notes: Dusky yellow with bright white/blue stripes but also black form with blue/white stripes with a clear tail, see lower photograph. Retreats to deserted worm tubes, small holes when threatened. Similar Plagiotremus tapeinosoma shares similar habitat but has a piano key pattern on the sides. Feeds on the skin, mucus and sometimes scales of other fishes. Juveniles mimic the Common Cleanerfish, Labroides dimidiatus, where at cleaning stations they attack unsuspecting customers. Grows to 12 cm.

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.378.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=plagiotremus+rhinorhynchos. Accessed 01/07/18.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/Plagiotremus-rhinorhynchos.html. Accessed 01/07/18.