Salarias ceramensis
Small reef blenny logged most often around Koror & Malakal in Palau and Sabah, Malaysia, in warm 27-29 C water year-round.
A stubby 10 cm reef fish that sits propped on its front fins on rubble or coral rather than swimming in open water. Look for a mottled brown-and-cream body pattern and the blunt, almost comb-like face typical of blennies, with eyes set high on the head. It tends to freeze in place when a torch or camera passes over it, which is usually how divers first spot one.
Spend most of a dive perched motionless on dead coral, rubble or reef flat, grazing algae off the substrate in short bursts. They're not fazed much by divers, more likely to hold still and rely on camouflage than dart off, which makes them a decent macro subject if you slow down and scan rubble patches rather than open water. Most sightings come from shallower, sheltered reef sections rather than exposed walls.
Like other combtooth blennies, it uses a row of fine, comb-shaped teeth to scrape algal film off rock and dead coral rather than hunting or scavenging, so it's effectively a tiny lawnmower keeping reef surfaces grazed down.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
Most reliably found around Koror & Malakal in Palau and across Sabah in Malaysia, with a solid secondary showing on Queensland's reefs in Australia. Indonesian sightings cluster in Java, with a scattering in Sulawesi, though at most sites it's logged as an uncommon extra rather than a headline sighting.
Mapping where Ceram Blenny is logged…
It's most consistently logged in Palau, especially around Koror & Malakal, and across Sabah in Malaysia. Queensland in Australia and Java in Indonesia also produce regular sightings, though it's usually an uncommon find rather than guaranteed.
There's no strong seasonal signal in the sighting data, and it's recorded across a narrow warm band of 26.8 to 29.3 C, so it's around on tropical reefs throughout the year rather than tied to a particular month.
Look for a small, stocky fish around 10 cm long, propped on rubble or dead coral with a mottled brown and cream pattern. It stays still rather than swimming off when approached, which along with its blunt-faced blenny shape is the easiest way to pick it out.
They top out at roughly 10 cm, making them one of the smaller reef fish you'll notice only if you're deliberately scanning rubble and coral rock for movement.
It grazes algal film directly off rock, dead coral and rubble using fine comb-like teeth, spending most of its time stationed over a patch of substrate rather than actively foraging around the reef.
It hasn't been formally assessed, so there's no official conservation status, but there's no indication from diver sightings that it's under any particular pressure.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Klipfish
1,860 sites
