[3] The adults may reach up to four inches in length when fully grown, and they have large reddish lips, from which they attained their names.

They are chocolate brown in appearance with some yellow markings, and possess blunt heads featuring four branching horns, and large reddish lips.

A variation on the species is a paler form, having a shell-white body and reddish brown head.

Ophioblennius atlanticus is native to the tropical marine environments of the central Atlantic Ocean.

[1] In the western Atlantic it is found off Bermuda and off the shores of North Carolina south through the West Indies to Brazil.

[6] Ophioblennius atlanticus mostly inhabits shallow, clear waters with coral reefs and rock bottoms.

They require a minimum of 30 gallons, and being generally peaceful are suitable for community tanks, as long as no other fish have a similar body shape.

[10] The egg batches in one nest may be at different developmental stages because the male redlip blenny is polygynous, mating with multiple females.

However, good parental care can increase the survival rate of the offspring, thereby spreading the female's genes.

[13] Female redlip blennies also consider males' allopaternal care when choosing mates (non-genetic quality).

The male also performs a non-typical paternal care: rubbing its anal-urogenital region over the nest's internal surface during spawning.

[17] Therefore, by rubbing the anal-urogenital region over the nest's internal surface, the male protects its eggs from microbial infections, one of the most common causes for mortality in young fish.

[14] Allopaternal care seems to be a huge disadvantage from an evolutionary perspective, since the male expends its resources to benefit genetically unrelated offspring.

[19] Territorial behavior is usually performed to defend resources such as food, shelter, possible mates, spawning sites, and offspring.

[20] A redlip blenny generally exhibits aggressive territorial behaviors towards other benthic fishes, as they may take over its shelter and spawning site.

The lack of a swimbladder does not affect adult redlip blennies, since they have already adjusted to the benthic life, as they matured.

However, unlike the adults, redlip blenny larvae are not comfortable living at the sea bottom.