Frogfish

ID points

• Pectoral fins like hands, used to walk over the bottom
• A slender rod with a lure on top of the head
• Round, warty body whose colour changes to match its surroundings

Basics

Family

Antennariidae

Length

5–30 cm

Depth

1-100 m

Regions

Indo-Pacific reefs · Caribbean & W. Atlantic

Distribution

Tropical and subtropical coral and rocky reefs worldwide

Habitat

Sponges and rubble on coral reefs

Diet

Fish, crustaceans

Easily confused with

Hairy FrogfishCovered all over with hair-like filaments of skinLeaf ScorpionfishBody extremely flattened side to side, like a fallen leafWaspfishDorsal fin starts above the eye and rises high like a sail

Fun fact

A frogfish walks on modified pectoral fins that work like limbs, and dangles a fishing-rod lure from its forehead to draw prey in. Its strike takes about 6 milliseconds, the fastest feeding movement known in any vertebrate.