286 UNDERWATER GUIDE TO MARINE LIFE 



Haplodoci (toadfishes). They are scaleless, covered with a thick coat of mucus 

 (probably a protective device w^hich renders them very sHppery), and have the 

 ventral fins united into a sucking disc, allowing them to maintain their position 

 adhered to rocks in streams or in shallow seas. Their flat shape offers little 

 resistance to currents or waves, so they are often found in places where the water 

 is quite rough. There are less than a hundred species, of world-wide distribution 

 in warm seas. They are usually not numerous and are hard to see. One odd, 

 elongate clingfish of the Indo-Pacific hides habitually among the spines of a sea 

 urchin. In size they range from less than an inch to 10 inches. There is only 

 one family. 



CLINGFISHES: Family Gobeisocidae 



clingfish: Gohiesox strumosus 



Size: Up to 4 inches or more. 



Distrihiition: Chesapeake Bay to the West Indies. 



Identification: Same as for the suborder. The color is a dull monotone of dark 

 gray to brown, as it is in many clingfishes. 



Hahits: Clingfishes spend most of their time adhering to rocks or other hard 

 items of substrata. They eat crustaceans and other invertebrates, and probably 

 some plant matter as well. 



Similar Sfecies: This genus is confined to the New World, four species on 

 the Atlantic side and twenty-two species on the Pacific. All are very similar and 

 range throughout the American warm temperate and tropical zones. 



Blennoid Fishes: Suborder Blennoidei 



The three families of blennoid fishes are largely of arctic and tropical seas, 

 being curiously scarce in the temperate zone. Most are small, and there is a 

 definite tendency for them to become elongate and eellike, and to adopt 

 burrowing habits. The dorsal and anal fins are long and continuous. The ventral 

 fins are slender, not united in a sucking disc, and are placed far forward. Some 

 blennoids even lack ventral fins. 



BLENNIES: Family Blennidae 



These are small arctic or tropical fishes which are sometimes scaleless and 

 eellike (particularly the arctic species). Much that has been said of the tropical, 

 shallow-water gobies also applies to the tropical, shallow-water blennies, of 

 which there is a huge array of prettily colored species with fascinating habits. 

 They resemble gobies in being common in shallow water in tidepools, coral 

 reefs, and rocks, and in their habit of appraising their surroundings from a 

 position propped up on their ventral fins. They also show resemblance to gobies 

 in their equally as fascinating social and breeding behavior, their tendcncv 

 toward semiterrestrialism, their alertness, and lack of fear, and their accessibility 

 for study by the swimmer. They differ from gobies in their more flowing 

 serpentine movements and shape, their slender ventral fins on which thev prop 

 themselves up, and their continuous dorsal fin. The ventral fins are used like 

 feet in walking or even like hands in manipulating objects. The authors have 

 had blennies fearlessly crawl over their bodies using these ventral fins. 



