Frogfish
frogfish
Peixe Pescador
Antennarius pardalis
About
This is a frogfish of the West African coast, a lumpy red ambush hunter that reaches about 10 cm. It does not chase anything. It sits still on rock and waves a small lure in front of its own mouth, then takes whatever comes to look. Fish and shrimp make up the catch.
Also known as: leopard frogfish
- Length
- 10,2 cm
- Depth
- up to 50 m
How to tell it apart
Frogfish all share the lumpy shape and the rod, and body colour and spotting vary in the group. Go to the tail. This species usually carries three dark spots on the tail fin set in a triangle, which is easier to pick out than the scattered spots on the body. Use that triangle to separate it from other spotted frogfish.
Appearance
The body is short and round, almost ball-like, and the skin is rough with tiny close-set spines. In life the fish is red, scattered all over the body and fins with dark round spots, some ringed like small eyes. The spots on the belly are smaller but more crowded. The mouth is large and filled with many fine bristle-like teeth. The pectoral fins sit on broad fleshy lobes joined along the sides of the body, and the pelvic fins are short. Above the snout is the illicium, the fishing rod formed by the first dorsal spine. It is close to twice the length of the spine behind it and carries a large flattened lure at the tip.
Habitat
It lives on rocky reefs in coastal water along the western coast of Africa, from the southern Western Sahara coast down to Angola, and around the islands off that coast. Records run between 18 and 50 m. It tolerates brackish water as well as full salt water. Expect it resting still against rock rather than out in the open.
Did you know?
Its species name, pardalis, means leopard-like. It was chosen for the ring-marked black spots standing out on the red body.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
