Shanny
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-17
The commonest blenny on the British shore, the fish under most rocks in most rock pools, and — for a very large number of people — the first fish they ever caught.
Safety
Fish welfare — Can cause injury needing treatment
A scaleless nine-centimetre fish loses a large proportion of its mucus coat to a dry hand, and a drop onto hot rock or concrete that a larger fish survives can kill one. Shannies home to their own patch of shore, so returning one to a different pool displaces it. And a stone left upside down kills the community that was under it, which in early summer may include a guarding male and a nest of eggs.
What reduces it: Wet hands, forceps rather than fingers, unhook over water, and never lay one on a dry surface. Return it to the pool it came from. Replace every stone the same way up in the same place, and do not move stones that need two hands.
Worse when:
- Hot dry days on exposed rock
- Spring and early summer, when males are guarding nests under stones
- Buckets left in the sun with several animals in them
The shanny is the fish this catalogue should probably have held before several of the ones it did.
IT IS EVERYWHERE. Under stones, in pools, in crevices, in weed, from the mid-shore down, all round Britain and Ireland. A person turning rocks on almost any rocky British shore will find one within minutes.
AND IT IS THE FIRST FISH FOR AN ENORMOUS NUMBER OF PEOPLE. Caught in a net by a child, or on a size 16 hook with a scrap of bait by a light-tackle angler, it is the animal that starts a great many fishing lives — and the catalogue's shape audit found it absent along with every other blenny and goby, deferred behind the quarry people set out to catch.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. Small, blunt-headed, scaleless, slippery, with a single long dorsal fin running almost the whole length of the back and a distinct notch in the middle of it. Mottled brown and olive, changing markedly with mood and ground. NO TENTACLES on the head, which is the character that separates it from the other British blennies.
IT BREATHES AIR, AFTER A FASHION. A shanny can survive out of water for hours in a damp crevice, absorbing oxygen through the skin, which is how it copes with a rock pool that empties. It is one of very few British fish a person will find genuinely out of the water and alive.
AND THE MALES GUARD THE EGGS. A male takes a crevice or the underside of a stone, persuades females to lay in it, and defends and tends the eggs until they hatch — turning almost black while doing it. Parental care in a fish under a rock a child just turned over.
Identification
FishingHQ holds no photograph of this species whose identity and licensing it can vouch for, so it is not showing one. Misidentified fish photographs teach identification wrongly, and a picture with an unchecked caption would be worse than none. The identification points below are what to look at instead.
- Scientific name
- Lipophrys pholis
- Family
- Blenniidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Britain & Ireland, Western Europe, Northern Europe, Mediterranean, North Africa
- NO TENTACLES ON THE HEAD. This is the character. Montagu's blenny has a branched tentacle between the eyes and the tompot blenny has conspicuous branched ones; the shanny has a completely smooth head.
- A SINGLE LONG DORSAL FIN running nearly the whole length of the back, with a clear notch in the middle of it.
- SCALELESS AND SLIPPERY, with a heavy mucus coat — which is why handling matters so much on a fish this size.
- BLUNT, ROUNDED HEAD with high-set eyes and a small mouth full of fine teeth for scraping.
- MOTTLED BROWN, OLIVE AND CREAM, changing markedly with the ground and with mood. Breeding males go almost black with white lips.
- UNDER A STONE OR IN A POOL, from the mid-shore down. If it is a small blunt-headed fish in a British rock pool with no head tentacles, it is a shanny.
Size
- Typical
- 6–10 cm.
- Large
- Over 14 cm is a large shanny.
Exceptional: Around 16 cm is the widely reported maximum for the species.
Lifecycle and reproduction
Matures at two to three years and lives to around a decade, which is considerably longer than most people would guess for a rock-pool fish. Eggs are laid in a crevice or under a stone and guarded by the male until they hatch; larvae are planktonic for a period before settling to the shore. Individuals are strongly site-attached and show homing — a shanny displaced from its pool will return to it — which is the biological fact behind the practical rule about putting fish back where they came from.
Spawning runs through spring and summer. A male takes a nest site — a crevice, the underside of a stone, a hole — and defends it, and several females may lay in the same nest. He guards, cleans and aerates the eggs until they hatch, turning very dark with contrasting pale lips while in breeding condition. The eggs are attached to the rock in a single layer and are perfectly visible to anybody who lifts the wrong stone in June.
Feeding and senses
A grazer and picker: barnacles above all, which it takes by biting the cirri off feeding barnacles, plus small crustaceans, molluscs and algae. The fine scraping teeth and the small mouth suit exactly that. It feeds on the rising tide as the shore is covered and retreats to a crevice or pool as it falls, which is why it is found out of water at low tide.
Vision with high-set eyes suited to looking upward from a crevice, and good chemical sense. The behavioural point that matters is the homing: shannies know their own patch of shore in detail and return to it, which means a fish moved to another pool has been genuinely displaced rather than merely relocated.
Through the year
Present year-round on the same shore, moving slightly deeper in winter and up into the intertidal in the warmer months. Males are on nests through spring and summer, which is the period when turning stones does the most damage.
Distribution
North-east Atlantic from Norway to Morocco, including the whole of Britain and Ireland, and into the western Mediterranean. On rocky shores from the mid-intertidal down to the shallow subtidal, under stones, in pools, in crevices and among weed.
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
Not quarry in any conventional sense, and one of the most significant fish in this catalogue for that reason. It is the commonest capture in British light rock fishing and species hunting, the standard first fish for a child with a net, and the animal that most often teaches somebody that fish are individually interesting. Its significance is entirely about who catches it rather than about what it is worth.
Handling and returning
The proportions are against you and that is the whole of the handling advice. A hook that is trivial in a bass is substantial in a nine-centimetre fish, and a drop onto dry rock that a wrasse survives can kill one.
Wet hands always — a scaleless fish with a heavy mucus coat loses a large proportion of it to a dry palm. Unhook with forceps rather than fingers, over water where possible, and never lay one on hot dry rock or concrete. Barbless or crushed barbs make all of this faster.
RETURN IT WHERE IT CAME FROM. Shannies home to their own patch of shore, so a fish put back in a different pool has been displaced rather than released.
AND REPLACE EVERY STONE THE WAY IT WAS. The community under a rock is what lives there, and in spring and summer the stone you turned may have a male and a nest of eggs under it.
Going further
- Shanny vs Rock goby — how to tell them apart.
Which blenny, and the mini-species set a British shore actually holds
British shores hold several blennies and a great many gobies, and light rock fishing has made telling them apart a mainstream angling skill rather than a specialist one.
SHANNY — no head tentacles at all, blunt head, single notched dorsal. The default: the commonest and the one under most stones.
TOMPOT BLENNY — conspicuous branched tentacles above the eyes, larger, more strikingly banded, and a genuinely handsome fish. More southern and more subtidal.
MONTAGU'S BLENNY — a single branched tentacle between the eyes and pale spots on the head. South-western and much less common.
BUTTERFLY BLENNY — a very tall spotted front dorsal fin. Uncommon, and unmistakable when seen.
GOBIES ARE A DIFFERENT FAMILY and the difference is structural: gobies have TWO separate dorsal fins and pelvic fins fused into a sucker disc on the belly; blennies have one long dorsal and separate pelvics. Rock goby, black goby, sand goby and painted goby are the common ones and they are separated by fin ray counts and markings.
AND THE SEA SCORPIONS ARE NEITHER. Spined, broad-headed and sitting on the bottom rather than in a crevice — see the long-spined sea scorpion record, which carries a handling hazard the blennies do not.
WHY THIS IS WORTH LEARNING. It is the entire object of species hunting, it is the fastest way to make a child's rock-pooling session interesting rather than repetitive, and it is the skill that transfers: somebody who can separate four blennies by head tentacles can separate four gurnards by lateral line.
Practitioner consensus
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat, identification characters and biology of the fishes and inshore fauna of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic identification characters, family placement, depth range and distribution as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the region concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour, technique and regional practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
The first fish, and the standard it sets
For a very large number of British adults, the first fish they held was a shanny in a net, and that is worth taking seriously as a product question rather than as sentiment.
IT IS THE MOST ACCESSIBLE FISHING IN BRITAIN. No licence question at sea, no boat, no distance, no expense, no waiting. A net, a bucket of seawater and a rocky shore on a falling tide, and something is caught within minutes. Nothing else in this catalogue has that profile.
AND THE HANDLING STANDARD IS THE TEACHING. Whatever is done in front of a child on a rock-pool session is what they will do for the next forty years. Wet hands, back in the water quickly, the same pool it came from, and the stone put back the way it was — those four things are the whole of it, and they cost nothing.
THE BUCKET IS THE PART PEOPLE GET WRONG. A bucket of seawater in the sun warms and deoxygenates fast, and a bucket with six animals in it is worse. Keep it in the shade, keep it shallow, change the water, and empty it back where the animals came from long before the end of the afternoon.
AND THE STONE IS THE PART THAT MATTERS MOST TO THE SHORE. Everything under a rock — the shanny, the crabs, the anemones, the eggs — is there because it is dark and damp. A rock left upside down kills all of it, and in early summer it may have a male shanny and a nest of eggs on the underside.
WHAT THIS RECORD IS ACTUALLY FOR. FishingHQ's shape audit found blennies, gobies and sculpins absent and deferred them behind quarry people set out to catch. That deferral was defensible until light rock fishing existed as a discipline in the catalogue, at which point a discipline whose entire object is identifying small fish could not point at a single one of them. This closes that, and the beginner argument is the better half of the reason.
Practitioner consensus
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat, identification characters and biology of the fishes and inshore fauna of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling and shore gathering practice as reported by practitioners: ground, tackle, seasonal timing and method convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour, technique and regional practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where to go next
How it is caught
- Light rock fishingThe commonest capture in British light rock fishing after the corkwing wrasse, and the reason a size 16 hook is a legitimate piece of sea tackle.
- Float fishingSmall baits fished close to rock take shannies constantly, usually by somebody fishing for something else.
What these connections rest on (2)
Practitioner consensus — 2 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Light rock fishing
A statement about how a species is fished or collected, which is convention rather than biology and is labelled as such.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling and shore gathering practice as reported by practitioners: ground, tackle, presentation and seasonal timing.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of technique, quarry behaviour and regional practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What anglers actually use a method for, recorded as convention.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling and shore gathering practice as reported by practitioners: ground, tackle, presentation and seasonal timing.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of technique, quarry behaviour and regional practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Float fishing
A statement about how a species is fished or collected, which is convention rather than biology and is labelled as such.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling and shore gathering practice as reported by practitioners: ground, tackle, presentation and seasonal timing.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of technique, quarry behaviour and regional practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it lives
- Mudflats and intertidal sandflatsWhere rock and soft ground meet, shannies occupy the hard fragments and the pools within a flat rather than the sediment itself.
- Rocky shores and reefsUnder stones, in pools, in crevices and among weed from the mid-shore down — the commonest fish on a British rocky shore and the one under most rocks.
What these connections rest on (2)
Scientific evidence — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Mudflats and intertidal sandflats
A habitat association resting on the standard regional reference works rather than on angling report.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the fishes and inshore fauna of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, family placement, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the region concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Rocky shores and reefs
A habitat association resting on the standard regional reference works rather than on angling report.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the fishes and inshore fauna of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, family placement, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the region concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Understanding this fish
- Amphipods and mysids as preySmall crustaceans picked from rock and weed, described in the literature at group level, alongside barnacle cirri taken directly from feeding barnacles.
- Mini species and species huntingWhat the branch of fishing this species belongs to is actually for, and the record that carried the blennies and gobies while none of them existed.
What these connections rest on (2)
Scientific evidence — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Amphipods and mysids as prey
A diet claim recorded at group level, pointed at a modelled prey CATEGORY, because the reference works describe the diet as a group rather than by species.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the fishes and inshore fauna of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, family placement, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the region concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Practitioner consensus — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Mini species and species hunting
An explainer carrying a mechanism the record depends on.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling and shore gathering practice as reported by practitioners: ground, tackle, presentation and seasonal timing.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of technique, quarry behaviour and regional practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Told apart from
- Rock gobyThe two small fish in the same British rock pool, and the identification that Sprint 51 found the site could not make with only one of them. The answer is structural rather than a matter of colour or size: a goby has two separate dorsal fins and pelvic fins fused into a sucker disc on the belly; a blenny has one long dorsal — notched in the shanny, but still one fin — and two small separate pelvics ahead of the pectorals.
- Corkwing wrasseThe two commonest small-fish captures on a British rock mark, and they are not remotely alike once looked at: a scaleless blenny with one long dorsal fin, against a deep-bodied wrasse with a comma behind the eye.
- Long-spined sea scorpionThe two fish a British rock pool most reliably holds. One is smooth, scaleless and harmless; the other is spined, camouflaged and sits still — and the difference decides how each is picked up.
What these connections rest on (3)
Scientific evidence — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Rock goby
Two species a reader genuinely confuses, joined so a comparison page may exist, with the evidence naming the binomial the claim is about.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Identification characters, family placement and biology of Lipophrys pholis and Gobius paganellus and of the species it is confused with, as set out for the fauna of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Compiled nomenclature, family placement, distribution and habitat for Lipophrys pholis and Gobius paganellus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Practitioner consensus — 3 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Rock goby
A confusion two readers actually have, resolved against published identification characters.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Systematic description, distribution and identification characters for the fishes of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Compiled species data: nomenclature, distribution, habitat, depth range and maximum recorded size.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Corkwing wrasse
A comparison a reader with the animal or the decision in front of them genuinely needs.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the fishes and inshore fauna of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, family placement, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the region concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Long-spined sea scorpion
A comparison a reader with the animal or the decision in front of them genuinely needs.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, identification and biology of the fishes and inshore fauna of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic characters, family placement, habitat and depth range as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the region concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sources for this page
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat, identification characters and biology of the fishes and inshore fauna of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Diagnostic identification characters, family placement, depth range and distribution as set out in the FAO species identification sheets for the region concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The global Red List category and the assessment behind it, assessed 11 January 2014. A statement about the species across its range and not about any managed stock.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of species behaviour, technique and regional practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.