The prominent eyes sit beneath a number of fringed tentacles placed on its head which has a small mouth.

Their colour can be a bright red marked with darker and lighter bars and blotches along its flanks, although there are individuals which are duller, brown or orange.

It was thought to be restricted to Portuguese territorial waters in the mainland, Berlengas, the Azores and Madeira but the species was revalidated in 1982 using morphological and in 2007 molecular data to separate it from the tompot blenny.

This species is omnivorous feeding on red algae, cnidarians and amphipods as well as on gastropods[1] worms and isopods and shrimp.

[2] Off Great Britain and Ireland the Portuguese blenny is most frequently found where there is steeply sloping bedrock, especially limestone which appears to provide a good number of crevices for this species to hide in.