On a collection of blennies from Gujarat Coast with some new records

Abstract

While collecting the shore fishes from the Gujarat coast during 1961-63, a few interesting blennioid fishes were obtained, of which Antennablennius bifilum (Gflnther), Rhabdoblennius cornifer (Rflppell), Ecsenius pulcher (Murray) are new records for Indian waters. Along with them the known sptcies, Petroscirtes mitratus (RappellJ), Helcogramma ellioti (Herre), Salarius dussumieri (C.V.), Dasson cyprinoides (C.V.), Omobranchus punctatus (C.V.) and Pholioides thomaseni Nielsen were also collected. Pholioides thomaseni Nielsen is described here as it is a recently,(Nielsen, 1960) discovered fish and the sole representative of the family Haliophidae from India. The collection was restricted to the tidal ponds of Rupan, Okha, Pirotan Island and the Kiew Point of Gujarat Coast. The fishes were collected by draining off the water from the tidal pools. Often small quantities of formalin were poured to bring them out from crevices.