• Tides
  • Marks
  • Fish guide
  • Water quality
  • Log
  • Alerts
  • Tides
  • Marks
  • Fish guide
  • Water quality
  • Log
  • Alerts

For planning a fishing trip only, not for navigation. Check an official tide table and local conditions before you go.

How we scoreAdvertiseAdvertising termsPrivacyTerms of use
  • Tides
  • Marks
  • Fish guide
  • Water quality
  • Log
  • Alerts
  • Tides
  • Marks
  • Fish guide
  • Water quality
  • Log
  • Alerts
Fish guide

Tompot blenny

Parablennius gattorugine · Small fish and rockpool species

Also called blenny, tompot

Tompot blenny
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What fish is this?Identify a fish from a photo

The largest British blenny, living in rocky crevices in shallow seas on southern and western coasts. Small ones turn up in rockpools.[1]

How to recognise it

  • Two large, branched tentacles on the head, like antlers.[1]
  • Orangey-brown, sometimes greenish, with several darker bars down the body.[1]
  • A similar blenny, Parablennius ruber, is red and very rare, found only at a few wave-exposed sites in the west.[2]

When and where

Season
all year[1]
Found over
rocky ground, crevices, seaweed[2]

Listed as present all year round.[1]

Sources

  1. Wildlife Trusts: Tompot blenny
  2. MarLIN: Tompot blenny

These notes are a draft: we gathered them from the sources above and are still checking them. We don't work out best times for this fish yet. The size rules come from the same checked byelaws as every other fish.

Size and bag limit

Minimum size
Sizes vary along the coast. Pick your spot to see the rule there.
Bag limit
None set for the whole UK.
Minimum sizes around the UK
AreaMinimum size
Kent & Essex IFCANone
Sussex IFCANone
Southern IFCANone
Devon & Severn IFCANone
Cornwall IFCANone
Isles of Scilly IFCANot checked yet
North Western IFCANone
North Eastern IFCANot checked yet
Northumberland IFCANot checked yet
Eastern IFCANone
Welsh GovernmentNot checked yet
Scottish GovernmentNot checked yet
DAERA (Northern Ireland)Not checked yet