The Bicolor Blenny is aptly named due to its striking pattern of half yellow and half brownish purple. They are mainly found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and inhabit reef and lagoons, near corals or rocky rubble. The Bicolor Blenny belong to the family Blenniidae, the combtooth blennies. They are a popular aquarium fish and are considered quite hardy. The Bicolor Blenny can get along well with other tank inhabitants but often they can be aggressive to similar looking fish or same species fish. We recommend you to keep them in a closed aquarium as they are very good at jumping and can come out easily out of the aquarium. It is advisable to keep them well fed with marine and blue green algae either in fresh, frozen and freeze dried. The Bicolor Blenny is an egg-laying species, and their eggs are adhesive and are found nearly at the bottom. They can only swim a short distance, and rather than swimming it looks they are hopping. The presence of a few live rocks allow them to perch on as well as hide in and around. The Bicolor Blenny fish are mostly reef safe and bottom dwelling algae eaters. Avoid having more than one blenny in tanks smaller than 50 gallons as they will be territorial and fight. There is no distinctive feature to differentiate males from females. The Bicolor Blenny fishes are an excellent and easy to keep community specie. They will spend most of the time resting on the aquarium rockwork.
The Bicolor Blenny has an elongated body with the anterior colored in dark purple and the posterior in yellow to orange. They have long straight cirri. These little fish have tons of personality and love to find a favorite spot in the aquarium to call home. They will often use rock crevices, caves, and empty barnacles to hide their body and allow their head to poke out to keep an eye on what's going on. They love to graze on algae throughout the aquarium and will often experience "pale patches" on their face and body when lights are first turned on. The Bicolor Blenny should not be mixed with other Blennies in small tanks. They are great for reef tanks and will accept most fish foods.The Blenny Family is commonly confused with the Goby family. The Blennies are distinguished by their single continuous dorsal fin and habit of resting on the bottom with their body curved. These fish will usually have tiny appendages on the top of their heads called "cirri". Some Blennies inhabit tidal pools where the water is warm and shallow. They have incredible jumping ability and are known to jump from pool to pool, which lends to the other name they are known as: "Rock Skipper". Other Blennies are found hiding in crevices and caves at coral reefs. These fish have blunt heads and their teeth are combed, giving them the ability to scrape algae -- their primary food source -- from rock surfaces.Photo by saltwaterfish.com member, Wattsupdoc: Charlie Bunch.
