The Common Blenny is also called the Smooth Blenny because it lacks the lappets or fringe on the forehead present in most of this family.

This fish is found off the south and west coasts of Britain and in seas as far south as the Mediterranean.

Another blenny species Parablennius ruber has been recorded in British seas. This new blenny is very similar to the Tompot Blenny and specimens may have been overlooked before.
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The Portuguese Blenny has been recorded from the western coasts of the British Isles, including Ireland, and may have been mistaken for the Tompot Blenny in the past. BMLSS Blennies

Portuguese Blenny Parablennius ruber  Fishbase Portfolio by Robert Patzner

Photograph by Gianni Neto

The rarest of the four British Blennidae is the Butterfly Blenny, Blennius ocellaris, which is found in deep water and never on the shore, although there are unconfirmed reports of specimens found intertidally on the Isle of Man coast. There is a photograph of this fish in the Plymouth Aquarium Guide by Geoff Potts, 1983. ISBN 0 903241 05 6.

24 May 2012 This blenny was spotted at a depth of 12 metres at Eastern Kings, Plymouth. Its body was narrow, not deep like the Tompot Blenny, Parablennius gattorugine, about 150mm long, has head tentacles, as you can see, but lacks noticeable dark face markings.   Report & Photographs by Martin Palmer It is certainly a Parablennius species and it looks a bit like the Portuguese Blenny Parablennius ruber.  The head tentacle splay is not so impressive as seen in the image of this fish above.This is the Variegated Blenny Parablennius pilicornis. It is out of the known range of the latter blenny. It has been seen before at Plymouth on the same dive site.  Comments by Andy Horton

27 August 2011
A Peacock Blenny, Salaria pavo (Risso, 1810), was seen on the Brittany coast, northern France: "It was found on the shore in the Golfe du Morbihan (a large natural harbour) in south Brittany. They were the commonest fish on the shore, under rocks from mid-shore down."

The Peacock Blenny, Salaria pavo has recently has been found in considerable numbers in the Morbihan and near Concarneau, more towards the western tip of Brittany.

24 November 2007
We saw a Striped Blenny, Parablennius rouxi, (wrong ID, corrected) off Plymouth. We dived at 50° 17.363N and 004°  00.187W out of Fort Bovisand. It was a flat sandy bottom with low (1 metre) rocky ridges covered in mixed animal turf at between 22 metres and 24 metres in depth. There were loads of sponge species and quite a few pink seafans and Imperial Anemones, Aureliania heterocer.
The ID is wrong It is the Variegated Blenny Parablennius pilicornis.

This blenny is a Mediterranean species and this is the first (?) record off the British coast.