Sabertooth Smile

A sabertooth blenny peeking out from its barnacle home.

Don’t be fooled by the adorable smile of this Sabertooth blenny. Masters of mimicry, these conniving little fish darken their coloring in order to blend in with schools of Cortez rainbow wrasse. So they want to be part of the wrasse club, what’s the big deal? Well wrasse have a reputable business of offering their cleaning services to other animals who need parasites and dead skin removed. When a blenny chooses to disguise itself as a wrasse, its able to get close, take a bite out of whatever animal is being cleaned, and then disappear with a full belly leaving the real wrasse with a less than clean reputation (and probably some bad reviews).

The Cortez rainbow wrasse that the Sabertooth blenny disguises itself as.