Japanese Blacktail Triplefin

Dorsal profile steep with very short snout; head and preopercular area naked; slender supraorbital tentacle; first dorsal fin a third of the height of second dorsal fin; body coloration gray with 5 indistinct, broad, paired brown bars; uneven bright orange spots on head and anterior body, small posteriorly, and mostly orange on posterior margins of scales; caudal-fin with black base, gray center with a midlateral orange band, a thin white margin, black submarginal line, and a wide bright red-orange arc. Dorsal rays III + XI-XV + 6-10; lateral line discontinuous, 21-22 + 17-19; mandibular pores 3 + 2 + 3 (Ref. 54980).

Dorsal spines (total): 14 - 18; Dorsal soft rays (total): 6 - 10; Analspines: 2; Analsoft rays: 18 - 21

Eggs are hemispherical and covered with numerous sticky threads that anchor them in the algae on the nesting sites (Ref. 240). Larvae are planktonic which occur primarily in shallow, nearshore waters (Ref. 94114). Minimum depth from Ref. 58018.

fisheries: of no interest

Springerichthys kulbickii, known commonly as the Kulbicki's triplefin, is a species of triplefin blenny in the genus Springerichthys. It was described by Ronald Fricke and John E. Randall in 1994, honouring the fish ecologist reef-fish ecologist Michel L. Kulbicki of L'Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique d’Outre-Mer in Nouméa, who collected type in New Caledonia, in its specific name. Kulbicki's triplefin is found in the southwestern Pacific Ocean from Queensland, Australia across the central Pacific to the Samoa, where it is found on rocky and coral reefs down to 15 metres (49 ft) in depth.