Two new species from the tidepools

After wrapping up a 15 mile kayak trip (see my previous post), I decided to check out the tide pools nearby because there was a low tide that was too good to pass up. My lower back was already sore, but damnit I was ready to be hunched over for another hour looking for tiny fish! This spot has a lot of shallow pools with rocks that could be carefully lifted up to see what might be living under them.

My main target was blind goby, a species that I've not yet found, but I suspected might be in the area. They cohabitate with ghost shrimp and honestly look a lot like them, minus the shrimp appendages of course. I slowly and carefully flipped rocks looking for them, but instead I kept finding clingfish. I've dangled baits in the faces of clingfish before, and I've come to the conclusion that they won't bite once you disturb the rock they're clinging to. However, one of the rocks I lifted had a clingfish sitting in the sand beneath it. Would he bite?? I quickly found a small shrimp to use as bait, dangled it on a Tanago hook in front of him without bothering to use a pole, and instantly he sucked it in!

California Clingfish (Gobiesox rhessodon) - new hook & line species #658


This is a fish I honestly wasn't sure I'd ever be able to catch on hook & line. I've heard of a few people catching northern clingfish in the Pacific Northwest states, but they grow quite a bit larger than California clingfish. I'll consider myself lucky.



I decided to spend 10 more minutes looking for blind gobies. They weren't under any of the rocks I looked under, but one of them had a pair of blennies instead. Making a note of where one of them hid, I found another tiny shrimp and dangled it in front of where I thought he might be facing. It really was my lucky day, because he came out and bit it, and it was the one blenny species in California I haven't caught.

Mussel Blenny (Hypsoblennius jenkinsi) - new hook & line species #659

Mussel blennies can be IDed by the cirri on their head, the small reddish spots on their face, and the large dark blue patch behind their eye. I'm not sure if those bright red tufts coming out of it's nostrils are an ID trait as well, but it's not something I'm used to seeing on rockpool blennies or bay blennies.

I still had an hour or more of good low tide and daylight, but I was really feeling the effects of getting up at 4am and paddling 15 miles, so I ended on a high note and headed home. Since this post is a little light on photos, I'll add in one of a colorful nudibranch that was cruising around the blenny tide pool. Next time I'll have to document some of the shrimp species as well.

I'll be back for the blind goby!