Creature Feature: Sarcastic Fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi)

Found in the Pacific, along the California coast and down to Baja (San Francisco Bay down to Cedros Island), they can be found in depths ranging from 10 to 240 feet. Sometimes seen out and about on the sea floor, generally you will spot them in their preferred home, that of a hole or crevice in a wall, or maybe a shell, with only their heads poking out. Remember to be careful when picking up trash or lost items while on your dive. I once disturbed a sarcastic fringehead's home when I went to retrieve a partially buried SCUBA fin I didn't know was occupied. I didn't have the heart to tell him the fin didn't belong in the ocean, so I left him with his treasured condo.

These unusual looking fish with elongated bodies, bulbous eyes and oddly large mouths can grow up to 12 inches in length. Their bodies are mainly scaleless with large pectoral fins and smaller pelvic fins. They are generally a brownish-gray color, mottled with red or green patches. On their dorsal fins, you will find two eye-like spots, called "ocelli", that are generally colored blue and outlined with a ring of yellow.

The sarcastic fringehead gets its common name from the fringe-like appendages above its eyes, and its territorial, aggressive behavior. When two sarcastic fringeheads meet in battle for territory, they wrestle with one another by pressing their distended, yellow-webbed mouths against each other, as if they were kissing. The fish with the larger mouth wins and establishes its dominance.

Take a close look and you might notice the tail
of a pipefish sticking out of its mouth.

Known to eat over 13 times their body weight in a year, Sarcastic fringeheads are omnivores, meaning they eat both meat and plants. Spawning season for these fish is generally from January to August. Typically the female hides her eggs in a crevice or clam burrow, then leaves them for the male to guard until they hatch.

1. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2013). "Neoclinus blanchardi" in FishBase. February 2013 version.
2. http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/sarcastic_fringehead
3. Denny, Mark; Steven Gaines (200). Chance in Biology. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 13. ISBN 0691094942.
4. California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigation (CALCOFI), 1996. The Early Stages of Fishes in the California Current Region. Lawrence, California: Allen Press Inc.
5. July 18, 2000. A Learning Link to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Los Angeles Times: E8.
6. Gotshall, D. 1989. Pacific Coast Inshore Fishes. Monterey, California: Sea Challengers.