Meiacanthus nigrolineatus
A small blenny with real venomous fangs, most reliably logged around Aqaba, Jordan, in 25-29C water year-round.
Safety warning
A bite from this blenny is rarely more than a sharp, brief sting, but it will bite defensively if handled or cornered, so admire it from a distance and never try to coax it out of its hole.
If you're bitten
Venomous bite (mild)General first-aid guidance, not a substitute for professional medical care. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
A slender, eel-like little fish topping out around 7 cm, usually pale blue-grey to lilac with a bold black stripe running from nose to tail. It hovers near burrows or holes rather than swimming openly across the reef, with a blunt head and large eyes that give it a slightly comical, alert look. The stripe is the giveaway underwater; from a distance it can look almost like a slim eel poking out of a crevice.
Look for it hovering just outside a small hole or crevice in the reef, darting back in the instant it feels threatened rather than fleeing along open reef. It tends to hang at a slight upward angle, almost motionless, which makes it easy to miss unless you are scanning rubble patches and coral bases closely. Divers rarely get more than a brief, curious look before it retreats.
It carries a real pair of venomous fangs in its lower jaw, and several unrelated reef fish have evolved to mimic its colouring purely to borrow that protection.
Sightings are spread through the year with no clear seasonal spike, and the fish sits comfortably in the 24.6 to 29.3C range typical of Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba reefs, so any month works.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
This one is most reliably found around Aqaba, Jordan, which accounts for the bulk of logged sightings, with smaller but steady numbers from Egypt's Red Sea Riviera and Marsa Alam & the Deep South, and a couple of sites near Eilat, Israel. It sits at uncommon-to-rare frequency wherever it turns up, so treat any sighting as a nice find rather than a given on a Red Sea dive.
Mapping where Blackline Fangblenny is logged…
Aqaba in Jordan is by far the most consistent spot, with additional sightings logged along Egypt's Red Sea Riviera, around Marsa Alam, and near Eilat in Israel.
There is no strong season for this one; it is present year-round on Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba reefs where water sits between roughly 25 and 29C.
They carry real venomous fangs and can deliver a sharp bite if handled, though bites are not medically serious. Leave it in its hole and it will leave you alone.
Look for a small, slender fish around 7 cm long, pale blue-grey with a single bold black stripe from head to tail, usually hovering near a burrow entrance rather than swimming freely.
They stay small, reaching about 7 cm, which along with the eel-like hovering posture is part of what makes them easy to overlook on a busy reef.
Its venomous bite is convincing enough that several harmless reef fish have evolved similar stripes and colouring just to mimic it and deter predators.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Klipfish
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