bluestriped blenny
Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos (Bleeker, 1852)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
'Tube worm blenny' On Black (Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos) A very colorful and quite active little species. up to 12cm,but this one maybe just 5cm. If distubed will rapidly retreat tail first inside the tubeworm shell it uses as a shelter. The species is an 'aggressive mimic' of the Cleaner Wrasse Labroides dimidiatus; it dances like the cleaner fish to attract a client, but then bites flesh from the duped client fish instead of cleaning it.Tube worm blenny
Jenny (JennyHuang) from Taipei · CC BY 2.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos, commonly called the bluestriped fangblenny, is a species of combtooth blenny found in coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. This species reaches a length of 12 centimetres (4.7 in) SL. It is also known as the bluestriped blenny, bluestriped sabretooth blenny, blunt-nose blenny, cleaner mimic, tube-worm blenny or the two-stripe blenny. They hide in deserted worm tubes or other small holes.
The fangblenny is a specialised mimic of juvenile bluestreak cleaner wrasse. Those fish serve as cleaners to larger host fish, which attend to have ectoparasites removed. The fangblenny does no cleaning, but bites the host fish and leaves.
Wikipedia contributors, Bluestriped fangblenny; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:22:22.437648+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos (Bleeker, 1852)
- Name authority
- (Bleeker, 1852)
- Common name
- bluestriped blenny
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Blenniiformes
- Family
- Blenniidae
- Genus
- Plagiotremus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderBlenniiformes
- familyBlenniidae Rafinesque, 1810
- subfamilyBlenniinae Rafinesque, 1810
- genusPlagiotremus Gill, 1865
- speciesPlagiotremus rhinorhynchos (Bleeker, 1852)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Plagiotremus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Plagiotremus iosodon Smith-Vaniz, 1976 | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Plagiotremus laudandus (Whitley, 1961) | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| sabertooth blennyPlagiotremus azaleus (Jordan & Bollman, 1890) | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Plagiotremus ewaensis (Brock, 1948) | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Plagiotremus flavus Smith-Vaniz, 1976 | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Plagiotremus goslinei (Strasburg, 1956) | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Plagiotremus phenax Smith-Vaniz, 1976 | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Plagiotremus spilistius Gill, 1865 | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| piano fangblennyPlagiotremus tapeinosoma (Bleeker, 1857) | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Townsend's fangblennyPlagiotremus townsendi (Regan, 1905) | BlenniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=219334 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:4JHKX. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.