Archipelago Wildlife Library

T. delaisi inhabits depths of 3 – 40m ⁽²⁾; and prefers darker areas such as under overhangs, and in cave entrances between 6 – 12m ⁽⁴⁾.

As with all Tripterygion sp. they are territorial breeders with the males responsible for parental care of the eggs ⁽²⁾.  The territorial males defend an area approximately 1m² in size; the nest site is located within this area and is about 20 x 20 cm².  The males attract the gravid females by courtship displays and their bright colour; this results in the initiation of spawning.  Algae in the nest is used as a base to attach the eggs one at a time.  The males fertilise the eggs and exhibit a trembling motions next to the female.  Small non-territorial males of T. delaisi tend not to mate and sneaking behaviour is very rarely observed.  T. delaisi have a short 17-18 day planktonic larval stage, which controls the extent of their local distribution ⁽¹⁾.

The two subspecies of T. delaisi exhibit different courtship behaviours, and this is the best way of distinguishing them.  The T. d. delaisi males swim in a figure of eight pattern upwards, whereas T. d. xanthosoma only perform the figure of eight on the bottom ⁽⁴⁾.

T. delaisi is the only Tripterygion species that is not endemic to the Mediterranean.  It can be found in the northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.  There are two distinct areas where T. delaisi can be found.  The southern most area consist of western tropical Africa to Senegal and the Macaromesian islands.  The northernmost area consists of the Mediterranean Sea and the neighbouring northeastern Atlantic to Casablanca, Morocco and to the British Isles.  These two areas are distinct as currently there are no observation records of T. delaisi between Casablanca and Senegal, or in the Western Sahara ⁽²⁾.

T. delaisi is highly territorial ⁽³⁾.

Their main food source is zoobenthos, which includes benthic invertebrates, harpacticoids and fish eggs ⁽³⁾.

Not evaluated under the IUCN Redlist ⁽⁵⁾

Description written by Nikkita Lawton (2009)

(1) De Jonge, J. and Videler, J. J. (1989).  Differences between the reproductive biologies of Tripterygion tripteronotus and T. delaisi (Pisces, Perciformes, Tripterygiidae): the adaptive significance of an alternative mating strategy and a red instead of a yellow nuptial colour. Marine Biology; 100: 1432-1793

(2) Dominques, V. S., Almada, V. C., Santos, R. S., Brito, A., Bernardi G. (2007).  Phylogeography and evolution of the triplefin Tripterygion delaisi (Pisces, Blennioidei).  Marine Biology; 150: 509-519

(3) Zander, C.D. (1986). Tripterygiidae. p. 1118-1121. In P.J.P. Whitehead, M.-L. Bauchot, J.-C. Hureau, J. Nielsen and E. Tortonese (eds.) Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 3.

(4) Carreras-Carbonell, J., Macpherson, E. and Pascual, M. (2005).  Rapid radiation and cryptic speciation in mediterranean triplefin blennies (Pisces: Tripterygiidae) combining multiple species.  Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution; 37: 751-761

(5) IUCN (2009). IUCN Red List. IUCN Red List. [Accessed: 03 June 2009.] http://www.iucnredlist.org.

(6) Morato, T., Santos, R. S., and Andrade, J. P. (2000).  Feeding habits, seasonal and ontogenetic diet shift of blacktail comber, Serranus atricauda (Pisces: Serranidae), from the Azores, north-eastern Atlantic.  Fisheries Research; 49: 51-59