Lineatus Blenny

Ecsenius cf lineatus - The Lineatus, Lined, or Klausewitz's Blenny, is an adorable combtooth blenny closely related to the popular Tailspot Blenny. 

With proper care, this species can live 6 or more years in the home aquarium, making it a long term pet for your reef. When you buy a captive bred blenny, you know you're buying a young fish that will live its full lifespan in your tank. 

Like Mandarin fish, Ecsenius blennies are scaleless, but are particularly disease resistant because of the excess slime coat they produce as a protective barrier.

As an adult, the underside of the fish is cream white, and the dorsal side of the fish is brown with black splotches and a very thin white horizontal line running from nose to tail. When stressed or simply resting at night, they naturally shift into a more subdued color pattern featuring lines or bands across the body, so don't be alarmed if your blenny looks a bit different after lights out.

This is a peaceful species that can be easily harassed by more aggressive blennies, like Algae Blennies or Starry Blennies, and should also be watched carefully around semi-aggressive species like dottybacks.

Wild caught individuals of this species typically won't thrive unless the aquarium already has an established presence of microalgae, which is something that most home aquariums can't reliably provide.

Our captive bred Lined Blennies solve that problem entirely. Ours are raised on small pellet foods like Easy Reefs DKI 0.6mm pellets along with frozen herbivore preparations, they're already comfortable eating prepared foods and don't depend on a naturally occurring microalgae population to survive.

Give this species plenty of rockwork and hiding spots. Lined Blennies need to feel secure before they'll venture out into the open, and a tank with insufficient structure will likely result in a shy blenny that hides more than it explores.

Lined Blennies do well in nano setups as well as larger display tanks. They can be kept together, but with caution, two males will fight in a smaller aquarium, so if you're hoping to house two males, you'll need at least a 6-foot-long tank to give them enough space to establish separate territories.

Reef Safe? Yes

Parameters:

Diet:

Current Size: ~ 1"

Max Size:

Suggested Tank Size:

20 Gallons