Snake Blenny

Fascinating facts about the Snake Blenny

• Even though it looks like a typical bottom-dweller, the snake blenny stretches up to 25 cm (9.8 in) – about the length of a school ruler. Its elongated body lets it slip into crevices where bigger fish can’t follow.
• From the cliffs of southern England down to the warm waters off Senegal, and across the northern Mediterranean, this fish paints a continuous ribbon of habitat along the eastern Atlantic.
• Living close to the seabed, the snake blenny prefers subtropical, demersal zones, meaning it hangs out just above the ocean floor where it can blend with sand and rocks.
• In 1962, parasitologists Maria Prost and Louis Euzet first described the monogenean parasite Flexophora ophidii from the French Mediterranean coast. The same parasite was found 58 years later off Algeria.

At a glance

About the Snake Blenny

The snake blenny, Ophidion barbatum, is a demersal fish found in the eastern Atlantic from southern England to Senegal and in the northern Mediterranean. It grows up to 25 cm (9.8 in) long. It hosts the monogenean parasite Flexophora ophidii, which was first described in 1962 by Maria Prost and Louis Euzet from the French Mediterranean coast and was later found off Algeria 58 years later.

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