The zebra rockskippers (Istiblennius zebra) are a type of blenny. In Hawaiian blennies are called pao'o with a long "a" (paao'o). They don't have swim bladders so they sink to the bottom when they stop swimming. They have faint gray zebra stripes along their sides. In Hawai'i, when you walk up to a rock pool next to the beach you often see these fish. They either quickly hide under a rock in the bottom of the pool or leap through the air from the first pool to the next one. They can leap a surprising distance and know just which direction to jump to make it to the next pool. They also have a habit of twisting their tail to the side when resting (which the one in the picture is not doing).
Last weekend, M and I got up before sunrise and headed to the beach to get some fresh salt water for our aquarium. (We had to leave early to get back in time for V to use the van to take T to Kung Fu practice.) We netted three of these blennies out of a tide pool and brought them back to the aquarium. It has been a week now and they seem to be doing fine. Importantly, they have not jumped out of the aquarium, which is something I was worried about.
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