Black-faced blenny
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
Not a blenny at all but a triplefin — three separate dorsal fins, a male that turns yellow with a black head, and a fish that lives upside down under overhangs.
Catching Black-faced blenny
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
- When
- Mar — months recorded at the places that document it, not a season for the whole range.
- Where
- 1 place FishingHQ documents — strongest claim anywhere: recorded here · From the shore
The black-faced blenny is misnamed twice over and worth knowing for both reasons.
It is not a blenny. It is a **triplefin**, family Tripterygiidae, and the character that says so is visible at a glance once you know to look: THREE separate dorsal fins along the back where a true blenny has one continuous one. The Azores checklist's Portuguese name is better than the English — `caboz de três dorsais`, the three-dorsal blenny.
And it is only black-faced part of the time. Breeding males turn brilliant sulphur-yellow with a jet-black head, which is one of the most striking colour changes on European rock. Females and non-breeding fish are mottled brown and easily overlooked. FishBase records a maximum of 8.9 cm.
Its habit is the third thing. It lives on vertical and overhanging rock, in caves and under ledges, and it is frequently found clinging upside down on the roof of an overhang — which is where a diver sees it and where an angler dropping a tiny bait into a crevice occasionally hooks one.
FishBase records it from the English Channel southwards along the west African coast including Madeira and the Canaries to Senegal, from the surface to 40 m and usually 6 to 12. The Azores checklist records it from the archipelago as well.
It is a species-hunter's fish, taken on the smallest hooks a person can tie, and it is nobody's dinner.
Where Black-faced blenny is documented
Places where public sources describe this species as fished, with how it is fished and how strongly the evidence supports it. This is not a range map and it is not a recommendation — it is what has been written down about a fishery rather than a record of any individual catch, and being listed is never permission to fish.
The Azores
1 documented place
Vila Franca do Campo, São Miguel
Harbour wall
Recorded here
From the shore
Reported Mar
What these strengths mean
- Recorded here
- At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
Identification
No photograph of Black-faced blenny has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Tripterygion delaisi
- Family
- Tripterygiidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, Britain & Ireland, Mediterranean, West Africa, North Africa
- THREE separate dorsal fins along the back. A true blenny has one continuous dorsal fin, and this is the character that settles it.
- Breeding males: brilliant sulphur-yellow body with a jet-black head. Unmistakable, and only present in season.
- Females and non-breeding fish: mottled brown and red, well camouflaged against rock and easily missed.
- Very small — FishBase records a maximum of 8.9 cm — with a pointed snout and large eyes.
- Habitually found on vertical or overhanging rock, often clinging upside down under a ledge or in a cave mouth.
Size
- Typical
- 4–7 cm
- Large
- 8 cm and over
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 8.9 cm
Lifecycle and reproduction
Demersal over a depth range of 0 to 40 m and usually 6 to 12 m, on vertical rock, overhangs and cave walls. High resilience. It is strongly site-attached, holding to a particular piece of rock rather than ranging.
Males develop the yellow-and-black breeding colouration and hold territories on vertical rock, which is when the species is most conspicuous. The detail of nesting is not established on the FishBase record and is not supplied from the family.
Feeding and senses
Takes tiny crustaceans and other small invertebrates picked off rock and encrusting growth at very short range. Everything about catching one follows from the size of that mouth: hooks of size 16 and below, and a fragment rather than a bait.
Close-range vision in shaded water under overhangs, where light is limited and contrast rather than colour does the work. It is unbothered by a diver or an angler close by, which is why it is photographed far more often than it is caught.
Through the year
Resident year-round on the same rock. The males' breeding colours are seasonal and are the only time of year the species is conspicuous to anybody not looking for it.
Distribution
Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea: English Channel southwards and along the coast of west Africa, including Madeira and the Canary Islands , south to Senegal
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
A species-hunting target and nothing else, taken on the smallest hooks and a fragment of bait worked into crevices and under overhangs in shallow rock. It has no food value and no sporting value. What it has is the ability to make a rockpool interesting rather than confusing, because being able to say `that is a triplefin, not a blenny` changes what somebody sees when they look into one.
Handling and returning
A fish of a few centimetres. Handle wet or not at all, use crushed barbs on the smallest hooks, and unhook in the water. There is no version of this in which the fish should be out of water for more than a moment.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Tripterygion delaisi.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The Least Concern assessment for Tripterygion delaisi, assessed 16 November 2007.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Marine fishes of the Azores: an annotated checklist and bibliography — Santos, Porteiro & Barreiros — Arquipélago, Life and Marine Sciences, Supplement 1, University of the Azores, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That this species is recorded from the Azores, and the Portuguese and Azorean vernacular names the checklist gives it.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Species hunting adventures on São Miguel — a two-part March diary at named marks — Something Fishy Going On (angling blog), 2022 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: That this species was taken on light tackle from a named São Miguel mark in March, and the rig and bait used.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Why the 3 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Rockpool blenny
Tripterygion delaisi is a tripterygiid with THREE separate dorsal fins, on vertical rock and under overhangs; Parablennius parvicornis is a true blenniid with one continuous dorsal fin and branched supraorbital tentacles, in pools and the surge zone. The Azorean name for the first, `caboz de três dorsais`, states the difference the English name hides.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
Reported, not established — 1 connection
Reported, but without independent support. Recorded because it is in circulation, not because it has been shown to hold.
Light rock fishing
Taken at Vila Franca do Campo in March on tanago hooks and a fragment of bait. A fish of under nine centimetres with a mouth to match is caught on size 16 and below or it is not caught at all.
- Species hunting adventures on São Miguel — a two-part March diary at named marks — Something Fishy Going On (angling blog), 2022 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: The light-tackle methods, rigs, hooks and baits a species-hunting angler used on São Miguel in March, and the species each took.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Rocky shores and reefs
Recorded as demersal over a depth range of 0 to 40 m and usually 6 to 12 m along the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. It holds to vertical and overhanging rock rather than to horizontal ground, which is unusual enough to be the habitat fact worth recording.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Tripterygion delaisi.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.