Painted greenling | |
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Two painted greenlings (one dark and one pale) at Scripps Canyon, La Jolla, California | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Scorpaeniformes |
Family: | Hexagrammidae |
Genus: |
Oxylebius T. N. Gill, 1862 |
Species: | O. pictus |
Binomial name | |
Oxylebius pictus T. N. Gill, 1862 |
The painted greenling, Oxylebius pictus, is a marine fish native to the northeast Pacific Ocean. Its range is from Kodiak Island, Alaska to central Baja California. It can reach a total size of 25 cm (10 in) and has seven vertical dark bands. It inhabits rocky areas shallower than 50 m (160 ft). Specimens (mainly juveniles) sometimes gain protection from larger predators by living among the tentacles of Cribrinopsis albopunctata or Urticina piscivora sea anemones, which are venomous to other animals but do not harm the painted greenling.
The painted greenling feeds on crustaceans, polychaetes, small molluscs and bryozoans.