I’ve been watching this blenny hiding in its shell in the MOTE grass flats exhibit for a few weeks now when another volunteer mentioned that it’s a male guarding eggs. Once I heard that, I had to learn more.
Florida blennies live in mangroves, seagrass beds, oyster reefs and rocky intertidal zones. This Florida blenny is a male – you can tell for several reasons, he has an iridescent blue spot at the front of his dorsal fin that’s visible about 8 seconds into the recording and he is guarding eggs. The males of this specie will often mate with several females all of whom will lay their eggs in a single location where the male will guard them. The eggs take about 3 weeks to hatch and during this time, the females will continue to lay eggs in batches over the course of the mating season (UK iNaturalist Florida Blenny).
I observed the blenny defending his shell by chasing off several of the other fish in the enclosure but wasn’t able to record this behavior.
Erica Lauer Vose 