Gobies and Blennies: What are the differences?

[i cant think]

I have three blennies in my tank, one doesn't have a continuous dorsal and another isn't a bottom dweller. The other has pectoral fins for walking.

Out of curiosity do you have a photo of all three blennies?
It sounds to me more like you have a Dragonet which isn’t a blenny at all but I could be wrong.

 

[i cant think]

All are wrong!
It highly depends on the species;
Some have a split dorsal like the Clown Gobies or Two Spot Blennies.
Only a few Blennies will change colour depending on surroundings, most noteably the Lineatus and Midas Blennies do this. Others change due to stress and I don’t find that to be a true ‘colour’ change.
I believe only two species of Goby will actually use their Pectoral fins to walk; The infamous Discordipinna griessingeri and Discordipinna filamentosus use them.
Gobies nor Blennies are totally Bottom Dwelling fish, they’re all some sort of rock dweller however they are not all bottom dwellers as seen in species in the Meiacanthus and Gobiodon genera.
And finally;
Blennies and Gobies do not live in reefs! Most of them actually live on the similar places as to where wrasses live;
Seagrass beds and small places with just rubble!

Gobies are one genus I’ve really studied in my time in fish keeping, they’re a fascinating family. And when you say tell the difference what do you mean?
As in how easy they are or how to ID different species? IDing different species is an entire other topic that is incredibly hard to go in depth in however identifying Goby from Blenny is rather more easy - Blennies are generally more ‘boxy’ and have quite distinct patterning and body shapes compared to Gobies.

One thing I did forget to say is;
What we call Scooter ‘Blennies’ are not Blennies nor are they related to them. These are Dragonets instead.
I assume that’s where the statement of ‘Blennies use their pectoral fins to walk’ comes in?

 

[design.maddie]

Out of curiosity do you have a photo of all three blennies?
It sounds to me more like you have a Dragonet which isn’t a blenny at all but I could be wrong.

It said Gobies and Blennies. I do have a pic of all three on my build thread. I am pretty sure of that. Canary Blenny, Orange spotted Blenny and a Scooter Blenny.

 

[i cant think]

It said Gobies and Blennies. I do have a pic of all three on my build thread. I am pretty sure of that. Canary Blenny, Orange spotted Blenny and a Scooter Blenny.

Yeah that scooter blenny isn’t a blenny
However as the question did have whether they all use their pectoral fins to move or not I feel like Peace River is on about what we call blennies/gobies in the hobby and not the true blennies/gobies of Gobiidae or Blenniidae.

 

[design.maddie]

Yeah that scooter blenny isn’t a blenny
However as the question did have whether they all use their pectoral fins to move or not I feel like Peace River is on about what we call blennies/gobies in the hobby and not the true blennies/gobies of Gobiidae or Blenniidae.

I am in agreement with this sentiment. I knew as soon as I posted about the scooter blenny it was going to draw some attention. Someone will learn from our conversation and that is what the site is all about after all.

 

[SDReefer77]

So wait, are we talking Scooter Blennies or Mandarin Gobies?

 

[i cant think]

So wait, are we talking Scooter Blennies or Mandarin Gobies?

Mandarin ‘Gobies’ and Scooter ‘Blennies’ are of the same family and aren’t actually related to Blennies or Gobies
However I believe that is what Peace River is including whereas instead of it being just Gobiidae and Blenniidae it includes everything we in the hobby call a Blenny or a Goby.

 

[SDReefer77]

Mandarin ‘Gobies’ and Scooter ‘Blennies’ are of the same family and aren’t actually related to Blennies or Gobies
However I believe that is what Peace River is including whereas instead of it being just Gobiidae and Blenniidae it includes everything we in the hobby call a Blenny or a Goby.

I was wondering if the "joke" would land since they are both Dragonets =), it was a 50/50 chance I guess...funny how common names and taxonomy aren't always in alignment.

 

[Koty]

Blennies and Gobies do not live in reefs!

That statement is wrong, IME, unless the red sea is a unique coral reef ecological system. I spent many hours watching blennies and gobies on the reef table while diving in many locations along the Sinai desert. The most important difference is that (many) Blennies do not have a swimming bladder.

 

[i cant think]

That statement is wrong, IME, unless the red sea is a unique coral reef ecological system. I spent many hours watching blennies and gobies on the reef table while diving in many locations along the Sinai desert. The most important difference is that (many) Blennies do not have a swimming bladder.

I misphrased that, what I meant to say is:
Not all gobies or blennies live in reefs. Yes you have certain species living in reefs and loving life but many just live in rubble areas with rather open sandbeds. Others live in sea grass beds and a few species live in reefs.
We all say these fish are reef safe and found on reefs but the reality is most are found in open water with just rubble piles and silty sand instead of these luscious reefs.

 

[Chasmodes]

The first true statements are true, because they're aren't absolute statements. The last three are true, because they are absolute statements, and there are many exceptions.

Many many years ago, first blenny was a red flame blenny Tripterygion melanurum from the Mediterranean, in the genus of triple fin blennies (not continuous dorsal fins). I've never seen that fish for sale ever again. It didn't live long, and there was no info on them at the time, and now I know why, because they live in cooler water than my fish only SW tank at that time.

That started my love of blenny keeping. Since then, I've kept molly millers, bicolor blennies, and locally caught blennies. My first and favorite locally caught blenny was one that I caught in the Chesapeake Bay while I was in college, the feather blenny (Hypsoblennius hentz). A graduate student was studying and experimenting on striped blennies (Chasmodes bosquianus) from the Bay, and after that, I decided that someday, I would build an oyster reef aquarium with both blennies as my feature fish. They fascinated me, as all blennies did. I spent hours in the U of MD library studying them.

Since then, I've caught and kept striped blennies (Chasmodes bosquianus) and naked gobies (Gobiosoma bosc) along with other fish species from the Chesapeake Bay in my dream tank, which I finally started up last year (I kept a 20g version of that tank with these fish species for several years). You can see this tank on my build thread. If you want to see my 100g (140g system) Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reef dream tank, you can see it in the build thread section. Basically, all of this dream tank centered around keeping blennies, and evolved into a biotope.

Of the bottom dwelling species, in most cases, a good way to tell them apart is that most, but not all, of these gobies have their ventral fins formed as suction cups, which allows them to basically stick to things. Bottom dwelling blennies perch on their anal fins, but are not fused together. In my opinion, blennies seem more alert, almost "smarter", but that's my own personal opinion. Even though the blennies are by far my favorite fish, I love all my fish.

Here are some that are currently in my tank:
Chasmodes bosquianus, male striped blenny, from the Chesapeake Bay. Bottom dweller, continuous dorsal fin. Both species are carnivores, but, I have seen the blennies on rare occasions, take some bites out of macro algae in the tank.

Chasmodes bosquianus, female striped blenny, from the Chesapeake Bay. Bottom dweller, continuous dorsal fin.

Gobiosoma bosc, or naked goby, from the Chesapeake Bay. Bottom dweller, not a continuous dorsal fin.

 

[Spare time]

I've never really understood the confusion. They are completely different in appearance and behavior and not even closely related