Family : Blenniidae
Text © Giuseppe Mazza
English translation by Mario Beltramini
The Leaping blenny (Alticus saliens) has a very vast range in tropical Indo-Pacific, where spends most of its time out of water in the tidal zone © Frank Deschandol
The Leaping blenny, Alticus saliens (Forster, 1788), belongs to the class of the Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fish, to the order of the Blenniiformes and to the family of the Blenniidae, that of the Combtooth blennies, one of the richest of the marine world, that counts 59 genera and more than 400 species present in the tropical and temperate seas, and at times even in the fresh and brackish waters.
The name of the genus Alticus, invented by Lacépède in 1800, originates from the Latin “altus”, high and more precisely from the French “altique sauteur”, meaning “high leaper”, with reference to the leaps this fish makes, as soon as we get close to it, passing from a rocky pool to another. The specific term saliens, always created by Lacépède in his “Histoire naturelle des poissons”, reaffirms the concept.
However, Forster had already described this fish in 1788 with the name of Blennius saliens, and therefore, even if maintaining the nomenclature of Lacépède and with some uncertainty, the paternity has been attributed to him.
Males are identified immediately due to their characteristic fleshy crest, reduced to a simple low dermal fold in the females © Frank Deschandol
Zoogeography
Alticus saliens has a very vast range in the tropical Indo-Pacific. Starting from the Red Sea, in fact we find it in Sri Lanka, in the Andaman islands and in Indonesia. Then, northwards, up to Japan and southwards at Christmas Island and in Australia. Eastwards, starting from Papua New Guinea, is present in Vanuatu, Samoa and French Polynesia.
Ecology-Habitat
Alticus saliens may be found even at 2 m of depth but usually lives in much shallower waters and often out of water, in the tidal zone, where it feeds scratching among the spray with its comb-like teeth the weeds growing on the emerged limestone rocks.
The big pectoral fins serve to this small fish, at maximum 10 cm long, to move on the seabeds and perform spectacular leaps out of water © Luis de Ossorno
Apparently breathes oxygen from the air jumping back and forward from a pool to another in order to not dehydrate the skin in the sun, but before maybe swallows water to get oxygen with the gills as if it were still underwater.
Moreover the fish breathes partially also breathing the oxygen contained in the water that wets the skin.
Morphophysiology
Alticus saliens reaches a maximum length of 10 cm. The compressed and elongated body has no scales. The head in the adult males has a characteristic fleshy crest, reduced to a simple low dermal fold in the females.
Alticus saliens is a herbivore feeding on the emerged rocks scratching with the comb teeth teh encrusting weeds. And there the matings occur © oceangirl4
The showy dorsal fin has 14 spiny rays and 21-23 soft, and the anal 2 spiny rays and 25-27 unarmed. The big pectoral ones, used for moving on the seabed and for spectacular leaps out of water, have 15 soft rays. The pelvic fins have one spiny ray with 4 unarmed, and the caudal is rounded.
The livery, variable depending on the emotions, displays wide and thin dark vertical bars, on a yellowish tawny coloured background.
Alticus saliens has an intense social life out of water. To defend the grazing rock from intruders, it in fact raises the dorsal threatening and if getting angry may become almost black.
Ethology-Reproductive Biology
In the disputes, like for defending the rock, it raises the fins changing often colour. The female lays in the hollow of the rock shown by the male © Kinmatsu Lin
The males of Alticus saliens reproduce out of water attracting the chosen female with repeated movements of the head near a hollow on the rock that will serve as nest. If the female enters to lay the eggs they fecundate them and then keep watch until they hatch.
The eggs, demersal, are stuck to the substratum by means of a filamentous, adhesive or pedestal pad. The larvae are planktonic and then are often found in the shallow coastal waters.
The resilience of the species is excellent, with a possible doubling of the populations in less than 15 months, and the fishing vulnerability, minimal, marks only 10 on a scale of 100. Therefore this is not an endangered species, even if the biologists of the IUCN Red List do place it in the category “DD, Data Deficient” because, as already mentioned there is perhaps a taxonomic confusion and therefore the information about the trend of the populations are uncertain.
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