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February 13, 2021  |  By Matt Hamas

Juvenile Frogfish

Juvenile Frogfish Live

IUCN Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERN

Striated frogfish can change colors!

This is a black-phase striated frogfish.  Let’s breakdown what we are looking at.  This is a fish that lives in salt water.  It is not a frog.  It is pea-sized.  That is my fingertip in the bottom left corner, for scale.  These fish can take on a variety of colors and patterns to match their background environment.  They are not fast swimmers, and their main form of defense is stealth and camouflage.  In this case, you can see how the frogfish blended in with the sargassum in the background.  Although it is not instantaneous, over a couple weeks a frogfish can change its body color to match its new environment.  There was even a recent instance where a frogfish in the Indian Ocean changed its color to white in order to blend in with the bleached coral it was living around.

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Frogfish will slowly walk around on their angled fins, which act as hands and feet.  However, they can also move around through a “jet propulsion” type method.  Frogfish are able to inhale water, channel it through special gill cavities, and force it out the back of their pectoral fins.  This waterjet type propulsion helps move the fish along the seafloor.  When the frogfish are ready to eat, they position themselves for ambush, then sit and wait.  To help lure in prey they use something similar to a fishing pole, called an illicium.  This dorsal spine extends from above its upper lip.  At the tip of this spine, there is an esca, which is a horseshoe-shaped fleshy lure.  This gets the attention of other fish that approach the easy snack, just to get swallowed whole (and alive) by the frogfish.  Frogfish do not have teeth; however, they can still swallow prey up to their own size!  They even eat other frogfish.  As the frogfish opens its mouth, a vacuum effect is happening.  The prey gets sucked into the frogfish’s mouth in the blink of an eye (they say ~0.006 of a second).

I was finishing my dive at Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm Beach, Florida, when I came across this frogfish.  I’m not quite sure how I saw this, every feature on this fish is black, except the esca.  This photo was taken in about three feet of water, near a cluster of seagrasses.  I put my finger out to provide some scale.  When I did this, the frogfish reached its fin out to my finger, in what may be the worlds smallest high five.  The frogfish and I were equally curious about each other.

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Did you know? Striated frogfish can be found in the Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean.

This may be the world's smallest high five

Frogfish swallow their prey whole!

Did you know?  The “Striated Frogfish” is also called the “Hairy Frogfish”.

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fish florida frogfish macro underwater

Article by Matt Hamas

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Matt Hamas and Ben Ivers here. We are focused on fostering a greater understanding and appreciation of the environment. We endeavor to bring you a unique perspective of the wild. Our photos are being placed here for you to enjoy. Please feel free to download any of the photos for your personal use. We are currently seeking partners for printing and developing photos.

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