Puckering Blinnow Icon used to represent the enemy on the wiki.
A render of a Puckering Blinnow from Pikmin 4.
Appears in Pikmin 3Pikmin 4Hey! Pikmin
Scientific name Narrolingus piscatum
Family Elips
Areas Tropical Wilds, Garden of Hope, Serene Shores, Foaming Lake, Serene Stream, The Shallow End, Treacherous Currents, Pollution Pool, Downpour Thicket, Below the Ice
Caves Subzero Sauna
Mission Mode Collect Treasure! stages Forgotten Cove, Clockwork Chasm
Mission Mode Battle Enemies! stages Twilight River Remix, Beastly Caverns, Forgotten Cove
Side Story days River, Tundra, Land, Sea, and Sky, First Part Found
Dandori Challenge stages Test Tubs
Dandori Battle stages None
Bingo Battle stages Buried Pond
Attacks Eat Pikmin

The Puckering Blinnow (ウオノコ?, lit.: "Fish Child") is an aquatic minnow-like enemy found in Pikmin 3, Pikmin 4, and Hey! Pikmin. It is a small, colorful fish enemy that inhabits bodies of water. It has two large bulging yellow eyes with purple irises, which are each nearly as big as its head. It is light blue with dark blue stripes on its top and spots on its side, and has a green fin spreading from its bottom to its back. It finally has a long beak, similar to a real world dolphin. It is about three times the width and half of the height of a leader, having a quite narrow appearence. In Hey! Pikmin, they have spiky teeth.

These creatures usually swim passively around in water, usually in groups of three or more. When one spots a group of Pikmin, it approaches the nearest Pikmin, grabs it, and quickly swims away. If the player attacks the Blinnow, it will drop the Pikmin and try to jump out of the water to avoid being attacked. If not attacked in time, they will eat the caught Pikmin. They can also jump out of the water to catch any Winged Pikmin flying overhead, and go to the surface to catch any non-Blue Pikmin that is struggling. It is very swift in the water, but it can only grab one Pikmin at a time. These creatures have a tendency to cause caught Pikmin to launch high into the air after death, if they had one in their jaws.

StatsEdit

To do: Find out its health in Hey! Pikmin by retreiving the value from the game files.
Care to do so?

Game Weight Max.
carriers
Seeds Value Health Regen.
  (?) 1 2 (normally) 2   × 15
  × 15
74 No
  1 1 2   × 1 74 No
  N/A N/A N/A   × 0 Unknown Unknown

Notes

Alph's comments

Structural flaw: weak hide
Weight: 1

They swim in schools. Not only do they hunt prey in their own habitat, but they can jump out of the water and go for prey in the air too. I hadn't expected to see them operate in such different environments, but now that I have, I'm definitely taking notes.

Brittany's comments

I saw one swim at the captain and thought they were playing around. Then one came right at me, and owwww. These things don't play! You'd better act fast to call Pikmin back if one of these things catches them.

Charlie's comments

Be advised that you're not safe just because you're out of the water. As I know now from experience, they can jump out, catching prey that strays too close to the surface. How can lips be so sharp?!

Louie's comments

  US version
Slice raw and serve as sashimi. The marbled fat gives this dish a deep umami flavor.
  European version
Slice raw and serve as sashimi. The marbled fat gives this dish a deep umami flavour.

Olimar's comments

Puckering Blinnow
Narrolingus piscatum
Elips family

Many assume it's undeveloped due to its large eyes and lack of fins, but this is simply its normal, fully-grown form. Though its dorsal and ventral fins have atrophied, the long caudal fin helps to compensate for this. It can leap high enough out of water to catch low-flying prey. The scales comprising the round patches along the sides are known to turn light pink during breeding season.

Hey! Pikmin logs

As long as you don't approach these creatures, which travel in packs, they are no real threat. Their big eyes suggest that they have excellent vision, while the puckered lips indicate...that they're good kissers?

Dalmo's NotesEdit

These form a group and then swim gracefully along together as though joined in an underwater dance. Are they a family or travelling as a school? It might be enlightening to watch them with a submersible camrea - very quietly so they don't notice.

Pikmin 3 Prima GuideEdit

"Puckering Blinnows are small aquatic creatures that use their narrow bills to skewer unsuspecting victims. Puckering Blinnows tend to congregate; as you attack one Puckering Blinnow, there's a good chance a second enemy will attack your squad.

When you encounter a Puckering Blinnow, use a squad of Blue Pikmin to charge the creature. When a Puckering Blinnow skewers one of your Pikmin, make that enemy your primary target – if you're lucky, at least part of your squad will automatically follow the enemies as it retreats. A skewered Pikmin can survive for a few seconds. Move quickly to defeat a Puckering Blinnow before its victim succumbs to its injuries."

Pikmin GardenEdit

Text

大きな目と未発達に見える体の形状から、魚の子と呼ばれている。実は、ふ化後もほとんど大きさが変わらない成魚である。発達したヒレで、水上の獲物に対しても貪欲に食らいつく。

特徴 その1 水上へ跳び出す

発達した腹ビレで勢いよく跳び出して、水上にいる獲物をも捕らえる。

特徴 その2 群れで泳ぐ

獲物を狩る成功率を上げるため、群れで活動していることが多い。

特徴 その3 婚姻色

繁殖期には腹部側面が鮮やかな桜色になる。通常はバナナウオの名の通り、黄色である。

Translation

They are called fish children because of their large eyes and seemingly undeveloped body shape. In fact, they are adult fish that remain almost the same size even after hatching. With their well-developed fin, they feed voraciously on prey above the water.

Feature #1: Jumping out of the water

With their well-developed ventral fin, they leap vigorously to catch prey on the water.

Feature #2: Swimming in schools

To hunt prey more successfully, they often form schools.

Feature #3: Nuptial coloration

During the breeding season, the sides of the abdomen turn bright pink. Normally, as the name Banana Fish implies, it is yellow.

BehaviorEdit

Puckering Blinnows are very fast in the water, but incredibly fragile, and will die quickly if attacked by just a few Blue Pikmin. They do not go down without a fight, however, and will go into a fury if attacked, possibly even jumping over the surface of the water, or onto land, where they will flop around helplessly like a Wolpole for a short time. They can catch one Pikmin at a time and they take quite a while to eat it.

StrategyEdit

The following article or section contains guides.
The strategies shown are just suggestions.

Though the Puckering Blinnow is a frail creature, it is best to not let your guard down; they can be quick at skewering your Pikmin, especially if they aren't flowered, and can force you to put up quite a chase to get them back. The best way to defeat one is to charge, or simply dismiss your Blue Pikmin onto the enemy. It will be unable to attack and will be easily overwhelmed. The Blinnow should perish quickly this way. If you use a small amount of Pikmin, it will try to jump out of the water to shake them off. It is also possible to get it to throw itself onto dry land where it can be killed very easily.

Another strategy is to throw a Blue Pikmin holding a bomb rock into the center of a school of Blinnows. When it detonates, most, if not all of the Blinnows should be killed by the blast.

In Hey! Pikmin it is considerably weaker meaning that you just need to throw 1 Blue Pikmin at it to kill it.

Technical informationEdit

Pikmin 3 technical information (?)
Internal name tobiuo
HP 74
Rock Pikmin throw hits to kill 1
White Pikmin ingestions to kill 1
Bomb rock explosions to kill 1
Bomb rock ingestions to kill 0
Number of direct hits on top to kill 0
Damage to leaders 5
Territory radius 300
Mission Mode value 0

NamingEdit

To do: Finish explaining its scientific and generator name.
Care to do so?

See more: Elips family#Naming.
  • Common name: "Puckering" is when somebody shapes their lips for a kiss, much like how the Puckering Blinnow's mouth normally is. "Blinnow" is a combination of "blenny" and "minnow", two types of real-life fish.
  • Japanese nickname: ウオノコ?. It translates to "Fish Child", given its tiny size. The name ends in ?, similar to members of the mandiblard family, possibly in reference to their similar role as weak enemies that appear in groups.
  • Japanese name: クチボソバナナウオ?, lit.: "Narrow-mouthed Banana Fish".
  • Scientific name: Narrolingus piscatum. "Narrolingus" may come from "narrow" and lingua (Latin for "tongue"), referring the creature's narrow mouth. "Piscatum" may come from "piscatory".
  • Internal names: In Pikmin 3 it is internally known as tobiuo, which means とびうお?, or "flying fish". In Hey! Pikmin, like all enemy internal names in the game, it is a Romanization of its Japanese name with no spaces, Uonoko. However, its generator name is enemy_fish_macky. While the first part is clearly because the enemy is a fish, "macky" is the Japanese name for the Mockiwi, and also used in some "common" enemies's internal names.
  • Prerelease: None.

Names in other languagesEdit

The following article or section needs help from someone who can translate Chinese text.

Language Name Meaning
  Japanese ウオノコ?
Uo no Ko
Fish Child
  Chinese
(traditional)
尖嘴魚
Jiānzuǐyú
  Chinese
(simplified)
尖嘴鱼
Jiānzuǐyú
  Dutch Tuutvoorn Pucker(ing) minnow
  French Têtasson From "têtard" (tadpole) and "poisson" (fish)
  German Aqua-Termitentos Water Sheargrub
  Italian Tarlo acquatico Aquatic sheargrub
  Korean 긴주둥이물고기
Gin-Judung'i-Mulgogi
Long Snout Fish
  Portuguese Botoblênio From "boto" (Brazilian name for dolphins, also a famous character from Brazilian folklore) and "blênio" (combtooth blenny)
  Spanish Comején acuático Aquatic sheargrub

GalleryEdit

Pikmin 3Edit

Pikmin 4Edit

Hey! PikminEdit

TriviaEdit

  • Their corpses are quite light, and leaders can push them around slowly by walking into them.
  • The English version of Olimar's notes states that the Puckering Blinnow's dorsal and ventral fins have atrophied, and refers to its fin as its caudal fin. However, in the Japanese version, it is instead the pectoral and dorsal fins that are said to have atrophied, and its fin is said to be developed ventral fins that have merged with the caudal fin.

See alsoEdit