Chestnut blenny

Cirripectes castaneus

Fish
IUCN: Least concern

Usual depth1–14 m
Water temperature22–30 °C
Best monthsMarch and April
How commonOccasional

Photo credit: (c) Susan Prior, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

About this species

Cirripectes castaneus, the chestnut eyelash-blenny, is a species of combtooth blenny found in coral reefs in the western Pacific and Indian oceans. This species reaches a length of 12.5 centimetres (4.9 in) TL.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Cirripectes castaneus”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 71 records
February: 292 records
March: 729 records
April: 472 records
May: 75 records
June: 60 records
July: 62 records
August: 46 records
September: 76 records
October: 82 records
November: 102 records
December: 32 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 1–14 m · Deepest record: 32.6 m

0–10 m: 181 records
10–20 m: 31 records
20–30 m: 4 records
30–40 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 22–30 °C

20–22 °C: 2 records
22–24 °C: 2 records
24–26 °C: 282 records
26–28 °C: 355 records
28–30 °C: 80 records

Photos

(c) jeyre, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Susan Prior, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) jeyre, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
(c) Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
(c) Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Chestnut blenny, Chestnut eyelash-blenny, chestnut blenny, chestnut eyelash-blenny, Muzzled Rockskipper, Spotted-chin Blenny

Names in 4 more languages

German: Kastanien-Kammzähner
Spanish: Blenio Vede
Japanese: Tategamikaeruuo, タテガミカエルウオ
Simplified Chinese: 頰紋頸鬚䲁

Other scientific names: Cirrhipectes castaneus, Cirripectes gibbifrons, Cirripectes reticulatus, Cirripectus castaneus, Cirripectus gibbifrons, Salarias castaneus

Similar species

Filamentous blenny
Cirripectes filamentosus
Barred blenny
Cirripectes polyzona
Red-streaked blenny
Cirripectes stigmaticus
Imitator Blenny
Cirripectes imitator
Spotted Eyelash Blenny
Cirripectes springeri
Flaming blenny
Cirripectes perustus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
2,233 open-data records from 1836 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.

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