LemonLemon
New member
I'm sure many are familiar with the brachiosaurus blenny, aka Omobranchus anolius.
There is another species of Omobranchus recently discovered in late 2009, known as Omobranchus meniscus. It was recently discovered in Singapore late last year in 2009. This species was found living in brackish water. There have been no photographs, or other important information about it however, not even on fishbase.
Today, a group of friends and myself collected 13 specimens of an unidentified blenny with a very conspicuous bulge on it's head. Instantly we thought Omobranchus, or Salarias. I took back 7 of the original 13 and one of them did not make it on the way back.
The other remaining 6 are living in a holding tank with liverock for now. My friends and I have done plenty of work trying to identify this blenny. We ruled out Salarias as the finnage were totally off. Omobranchus was the only logical genus for it.
However, none of the blennies in this genus matched the identity of our "mystery" blenny. Those that did look somewhat similar were far off range, found only in Japan or Taiwan.
We then stumbled upon Omobranchus meniscus. The newly discovered species in this genus. There have been no photos of it, like i said, not even on fishbase. We found our 13 specimens in brackish water which suited the habitat. Moreover, it was found in Singapore, where it has been recently discovered.
We found eggmasses of it too, which were orange. A local clownfish and dottyback breeder who was with me, however, did not bring back the eggs.
Could this be the elusive Omobranchus meniscus? The tropical brachiosaurus blenny of Singapore? The one where no photoscan be found online (to my extensive searching).
If it is indeed O. meniscus, then this would be the first ever photographs of it and probably the first ever live specimen in captivity since it's discovery in my country.
I've attached the mediocre photographs i took with my digital camera. I hope someone here may have the knowledge to properly ID it. Is it really O. meniscus? isit a new species? isit another omobranchus blenny that has extended it's range into Singapore?
No other omobranchus that looks like this is found here.
There is another species of Omobranchus recently discovered in late 2009, known as Omobranchus meniscus. It was recently discovered in Singapore late last year in 2009. This species was found living in brackish water. There have been no photographs, or other important information about it however, not even on fishbase.
Today, a group of friends and myself collected 13 specimens of an unidentified blenny with a very conspicuous bulge on it's head. Instantly we thought Omobranchus, or Salarias. I took back 7 of the original 13 and one of them did not make it on the way back.
The other remaining 6 are living in a holding tank with liverock for now. My friends and I have done plenty of work trying to identify this blenny. We ruled out Salarias as the finnage were totally off. Omobranchus was the only logical genus for it.
However, none of the blennies in this genus matched the identity of our "mystery" blenny. Those that did look somewhat similar were far off range, found only in Japan or Taiwan.
We then stumbled upon Omobranchus meniscus. The newly discovered species in this genus. There have been no photos of it, like i said, not even on fishbase. We found our 13 specimens in brackish water which suited the habitat. Moreover, it was found in Singapore, where it has been recently discovered.
We found eggmasses of it too, which were orange. A local clownfish and dottyback breeder who was with me, however, did not bring back the eggs.
Could this be the elusive Omobranchus meniscus? The tropical brachiosaurus blenny of Singapore? The one where no photoscan be found online (to my extensive searching).
If it is indeed O. meniscus, then this would be the first ever photographs of it and probably the first ever live specimen in captivity since it's discovery in my country.
I've attached the mediocre photographs i took with my digital camera. I hope someone here may have the knowledge to properly ID it. Is it really O. meniscus? isit a new species? isit another omobranchus blenny that has extended it's range into Singapore?
No other omobranchus that looks like this is found here.
