Enneapterygius atrogulare
A 3cm reef micro-fish common on shallow rock and reef in New South Wales, logged year-round in 21.8-27.6C water.
Tiny at just 3cm, this fish perches upright on rock and reef rubble rather than swimming freely in open water. Look for a mottled brown-grey body broken up by darker blotches, with the dark throat patch that gives it its name visible if you get close and look face-on. Like other triplefins it has three separate dorsal fins rather than one continuous one, which is the quickest way to sort it from blennies at a glance.
Expect to find it sitting still on rock, rubble or low reef structure rather than cruising the water column, propped up on its pelvic fins the way triplefins do. It tends to hold its ground as divers approach, darting a short distance to a new perch if disturbed rather than fleeing far. Most sightings are in shallow water close to the substrate, so slow down and scan rock faces rather than open water.
Triplefins like this one lack a swim bladder, which is exactly why they perch on the bottom instead of hovering in midwater like most reef fish.
Sightings show no clear seasonal pattern, and with a comfortable range of 21.8 to 27.6C it turns up across the year on NSW reefs. Treat it as a year-round find rather than something tied to a particular month.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
Almost every logged sighting comes from New South Wales, Australia, with a smaller number from Queensland, making the NSW coast the place to search for this one. Shallow reef and rocky-reef sites in the 0-5m range are where divers and snorkellers consistently find it perched on rock and rubble.
Mapping where Blackthroat Triplefin is logged…
New South Wales, Australia is by far the strongest region for this species, with the vast majority of logged sightings coming from its shallow reef and rocky-reef sites. A smaller number of sightings come from Queensland.
There is no detected seasonal pattern, so it is considered a year-round sighting on NSW reefs where water temperature sits comfortably between 21.8 and 27.6C.
Look for a tiny, 3cm fish perched motionless on rock or rubble rather than swimming in open water, with a mottled brown body and a dark patch under the throat. Three separate dorsal fins, rather than one continuous fin, confirm it as a triplefin rather than a blenny.
They are tiny, reaching around 3cm in length, so you need to look closely at rock and rubble surfaces in shallow water to spot one at all.
No, they pose no danger to divers. They are small, sedentary reef fish that hold their position on rock rather than reacting defensively to divers.
Like other triplefins, it has no swim bladder, which is why it perches on rock and rubble instead of hovering in the water column like most small reef fish.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
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