By Gary Backhouse
Judy and I recently completed the excellent Alor, Komodo and Raja Ampat trip to Indonesia. The last leg of our journey was a stay in Raja Ampat at Papua Explorers Lodge, where the bungalows are built out over the water.
One night I walked out onto the deck to watch the lightning of an approaching thunderstorm, and I almost stepped on a fish! The fish out of water in question is the Ambon Rockskipper, a species of blenny that grows to about 15cm long. Like a number of blennies, this species can forage out of water, usually in the splash zone where the rocks stay wet.
These fish were climbing up the steps of our bungalow, about 15-20 cm above the water, then sitting patiently waiting for the rising tide (or the rain) to wet the steps, where they commenced feeding on the algae and diatoms growing on the wooden steps.
I have seen mudskippers (related to gobies) foraging out of water before but never terrestrial blennies! Curious indeed.
Hi Gary, thanks for sharing this entertaining post with pictures. We saw some kind of Rockskipper when we were staying at Misool Resort in southern Raja Ampat. We were also very surprised to see it out of the water on the rocks around the edge of the lagoon. Definitely a fish that falls in the curious category.