Whoosh Storm Freya and Storm Gareth but no ‘Beast from the East’ this year yet!

I’m still hiding away safely in my crevice home. Phew! Well kind of, it’s still like being in a washing machine down here after Storm Freya and Storm Gareth whizzed through followed by continuing wind and rain. There is a lot of swell and 2 metre waves crashing in on my beach.

Optimistically, I can feel it in the water that 2019 is going to be a good year for us tompot blennies.  Us ‘bourgeois males’ (that’s the way males like me that guard a crevice territory are described) are getting busy. We’re preparing for the spring by clearing any debris from our homes, getting ready to encourage our local ladies in to lay their eggs. It’s an ongoing job at the moment because, as soon as I clear lumps of seaweed out of my home, the swell whooshes them all back in.

I’m really hoping that, this year, we won’t have anything like last year’s ‘Beast from the East’ sweep over and drop the water temperature dramatically.

The seawater temperature is still 9 degrees C and about to turn back up I think. The days are lengthening so spring has sprung!

At last the sea temperature is rising!

Things are looking up now the water temperature has increased to 11 degrees after the warm Bank Holiday. Bradley has moved into my old crevice home and has a good raft of eggs. The crevice he moved out of has no tompot occupant for the first time in 10 years of observing the reef. A cheeky Connemara clingfish has moved in there! Bertram who is further round the reef is doing well and so is Byron, they both have eggs to look after. Paul is able to recognise us tompot blenny males individually from our face markings and that’s why we have names; this article in the Guardian is a photo story all about us – please take a look at this link.

We have names, as we tompot blennies are all recognisable from our face markings

A fish spring cleaning? In readiness for romance!

Well, the storms have gone, the sun is out, the seawater temperature which has been around 9 C most of the winter has just crept up to 11 C and, most importantly, the days are getting much longer. I’ve been cleaning out my crevice home to ensure that the floor and ceiling are perfect for egg laying; I flick and shiver over the surfaces clearing off any mud and nibble away at little barnacles and worm tubes that have been growing over the winter. All this to prepare the maximum surface area to impress the female tompot blennies that I invite in.

You might think that I’m not fussy about which females I attract to my crevice home but you’ll find I have my favourites. Yes, Paul’s research into our fishy community  Unique face markings has suggested there is a pecking order amongst the females. As I’m one of the top males with an excellent crevice home, and a proven track record for being a good dad looking after eggs, the top females like to lay their eggs with me!

Tompot blenny power! How to deal with a velvet swimming crab.

This pesky velvet swimming crab keeps creeping into my crevice home when I’m out searching for food. He doesn’t seem to get the message that he isn’t welcome, so I have to deal with him every time I get home. It takes a full blown head on barge, followed by careful manoeuvring to avoid his sharp claws. I then back in beside him and forcibly shove him sideways out of my crevice. As you can see from the video, I’ve nearly succeeded. It’s an uneasy truce for now but I’ll have another bash later!

I use a different technique to shift edible crabs from my territory, please take a look at my blog of 19th June 2015.

 

 

Benny the Blenny is reading his book!

Thank you for reading my blogs, I hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as I’ve loved writing them. There’s always so much happening on my reef to tell you about.

Take a look at this photograph, it shows me looking at the children’s book that is all about ME and my world under the sea. It uses lots of underwater photographs to tell you all about where I live, what I like to eat and what would like to eat me! My eccentric author was very keen that I should see the book so, when the first copies were printed, she brought one down with Paul (the photographer) to show me! I came out of my crevice home to have a good look, swam over it and ……

I’m taking a look at the children’s book that Teresa has written all about me!

I swam out over it – checking for spelling mistakes …..

…. all good so gave it the fins up!

…gave it a big fins up!

Was it the first ever underwater book launch??

My author isn’t brilliant at marketing, so I thought I’d give her a helping fin. Here is the link for my book, Benny the Blenny’s Shallow Sea Adventure https://www.amazon.co.uk/Benny-Blennys-Shallow-Sea-Adventure/dp/1909648000

and Paul’s wonderful book Great British Marine Animals https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-British-Marine-Animals-Naylor/dp/0952283166

 

 

Danger! Lurking cuttlefish

Talking of marauding predators, I watched this cuttlefish cautiously from the safety of my crevice home. It grabbed a small fish with its long tentacles and I wondered who had been the unlucky victim. Before the cuttlefish jetted away, I saw a sea scorpion’s tail sticking out from its tentacles. That fish’s camouflage hadn’t deceived the superb vision of the cuttlefish this time, with fatal consequences! Sad to see I guess, but cuttlefish have to eat and better a sea scorpion than a tompot blenny, especially as sea scorpions can eat young tompot blennies too.

“Mini me” tompot blennies out and about on my reef!

Since the baby tompot blennies have settled out of the plankton, three noticeable things have happened. First, they have taken on camouflage colours and now match up with their background quite well. Next, they have a bright blue ‘eye’ spot on the front of their dorsal fin which they can flick up; does it make them look bigger and scare away other fish? Lastly, their head tentacles are developing well and they look like ‘mini me’ tompots as they explore my reef.

Mini-me, 30mm long baby tompot blenny!
Mini me, 30mm long baby tompot blenny!

They are only 20 – 45mm long at this time of the year (depending on whether they hatched from their eggs early or late in the summer) but they are just large enough to be spotted and photographed by Paul and Teresa. What always surprises them is how these youngsters are very bold and like to show off in front of the camera! Wouldn’t you expect little fish like these to be much more timid and hide in the small crevices away from marauding predators?

Take a look at my blog from last year 30th September 2015 http://www.bennytheblenny.com/blog/?m=201509  to see a video of two very small tompot blennies play fighting.

 

Benny the Blenny’s babies (juvenile fish) 2cm long are settling back on the reef

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

You’ve seen how my amazing my babies were swimming around in the plankton. The ones that managed to avoid being eaten and found enough plankton to eat have grown to around 2 cm long and have now settled back on the reef.  The researchers are not sure how they find a good home reef. It may just be luck or something to do with them being able to recognise the smell of the area they hatched from. Some coral reef fish know which reef is home from the sound the waves make!

When my babies first settle they are quite colourless, but soon take on camouflage colours to help them match their surroundings. You can see that their head tentacles have started growing and their pectoral fins are just visible with some black pigment.

Thank you to the National Marine Aquarium Plymouth for their help in getting this photo. The NMA is an excellent place to see tompot blennies like Benny the Blenny and lots of other UK marine life.

 

Flying about in the plankton, a baby tompot blenny!

Tompot larva NMA 190816 2

 

Hey, this shows what my tompot blenny babies look like when they have left home, having hatched from those eggs that I’ve been guarding. Swimming among the plankton in the open sea, they are very sleek with gorgeous big eyes and are between 4 and 20 mm long.

When they first hatch they eat very small plant (phyto-) plankton and animal (zoo-) plankton, the youngsters grow quickly and are then able to eat larger plankton. Bigger fish larvae and jellyfish in the plankton are a real danger and my babies have to make smart evasive moves if they see they are about to be grabbed!

If you would like to find out more about plankton visit:

www.lifeadrift.info

This photo was made possible by the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth so many thanks to them. Paul, my underwater photographer, would never be able to spot and photograph one of my babies in the wild!