Frogfishes on www.frogfish.ch - Anglerfische auf www.frogfish.ch        www.frogfish.ch

Frogfish Behavior

Colors and Camouflage
Reproduction
Locomotion

The Frogfish

photo of a frogfish (Hairy frogfish)  - <em>Antennarius striatus</em>. Common Names: froggie, froggy,angler, anglerfish, Fishing frog, Toadfish, Fishing frog (English), Anglerfisch, 
  Angler, Krötenfisch (Deutsch), Baudroie, Grenouille (French), Ranisapo, Pez antenado, Pescador (Spanish), Peixe-pescador, Peixe-sapo (Portuguese), malabarski Poland), izariuo (Japanese), tudsefisk (daenish), hengelaar (Afrikaans)

Images of the frogfish genus Antennarius - Frogfish Slideshow

The frogfish (or anglerfish, angler, fishing frog) is one of my favorite fishes so this website is dedicated entirely to this family of fishes (Antennariidae).

Frogfishes are fascinating animals. They sit well camouflaged and without moving on sponges, wait in front of holes or hide between corals and wait for their prey to approach. One of its dorsal spine is converted into a lure (illicium) with a bait (esca) which looks like a small fish, a worm or a shrimp. This lure is dangled, flicked and moved around in front of the Frogfish's head. If a fish wants to catch this make-believe prey it becomes prey itself - fast as lightning the Frogfish greatly expands its oral cavity thus creating suction pressure inside the mouth and engulfs the animal. This behavior is called aggressive mimicry. With this kind of luring behavior the frogfish is a very succesfull predator.

Although like a lot of divers I have started to use the nickname "Froggie" of course the frogfish is not exactly a cuddly animal - actually it is not very likable - but but how it looks and it's behavior is very interesting!

So - enjoy this website, look at the largest collection of frogfish photos, read about the behavior of this amazing fish and..... get wet! Those critters are waiting for you underwater!

Book: Teresa (Zubi) Zuberbühler: Frogfishes, Southeast Asia, Maldives, Red Sea

Frogfish book for download
on www.critter.ch

 

 

Frogfish, Anglerfish: Camouflage, coloring, shapes

Colors and Shapes

Frogfish, Anglerfish: feeding behavior, Gape and Suck, agressive mimikry

Feeding Behavior

Frogfish, Anglerfish: reproduction

Reproduction

Frogfish, Anglerfish: Characteristics, Esca and illicium

Characteristics

The 10 best known Frogfish Species

The 10 best known Frogfish Species

48 (53?) Frogfish Species 48 (53?) Anglerfisch-Arten

52 (54?) Frogfish Species

Distribution, Identication key for frogfishes

Distribution
Identification Key

Classification Lophiiformes

Classification Lophiiformes
Phylogenetic relationships

Deepsea Anglerfishes / anglers

Deepsea Anglerfishes

IMPORTANT: Based on new findings (reference) about DNA in frogfishes the nomenclatur for several frogfish species (all of the former genus Antennarius) was changed and this website corrected accordingly in 2012.
New phylogenetic relationships between frogfish genera and species (updated 2020)
list of changed species names / PDF

2021

  • Finally had some time to change the Latin names of some of the frogfish species. 9 species, all formerly Antennatus are now genus Abantennarius
  • The 52th frogfish species:Antennarius scaber from the Western Atlantic (formerly also A. striatus, the Hairy frogfish)
  • The 51th frogfish species:Abantennarius drombus from Hawaii (formerly a sub species of A. coccineus)
  • Changed the Latin names of several species in my book
  • FROGFISH BOOK DOWNLOAD - click here.

2019-20

  • In 2019: My last dives in Indonesia before Covid 19 (I really miss diving!!!), followed by really a lot of intense work for my job, so it took me a long time to look through my pictures.....
  • In 2020: Publication of "Frogfishes" by Th. Pietsch and R.J. Arnold. Very interesting texts about behavior, biodiversity and zoogeography. With some of my pictures in the book ;>)
  • The binomial nomenclature (Latin names) has changed for 9 species, added 2 new species

2018 - 10 years www.frogfish.ch!

  • FROGFISH BOOK DOWNLOAD - click here. Second vesion of my frogfish book is online: 156 pages with over 250 images! Have fun!
  • I looked at all images of Nudiantennarius subteres (over 100!!) and renamed them
  • According to a mail from T. Pietsch the specimens of A. pictus with a black coloring and orange dots are actually juvenile Warty Frogfishes (A. maculatus).
  • The 50th frogfish species: Histiophryne narungga vofrom Southern Australia (before identified as Histiophryne cf. cryptacanthus)
  • Over 30 new frogfish-images from Kathi and Niki Weidinger
  • New pictures of the rare Glauert's Frogfish Allenichthys glauerti from Australia

2017: New on www.frogfish.ch

  • The Lembeh Frogfish (listed here for a long time as Antennatus sp.) has been identified as Nudiantennarius subteres resulting in a redescription of this species (Pietsch and Arnold 2017)
  • Image of juvenile Nudiantennarius subteres (15mm) and of a yawning baby Hairy frogfish (A. striatus), only about 8mm from Maumere
  • Over 70 new frogfish-images from Volker Mattke

2016: New on www.frogfish.ch

2015: New on www.frogfish.ch

2014: New on www.frogfish.ch

  • FROGFISH BOOK DOWNLOAD - click here
  • The 49th frogfish species: A new small species of frogfish from Bare Island in New South Wales, Australia: Porophryne erythrodactylus
  • The 48th frogfish species: A new small species of frogfish from New South Wales, Australia: Kuiterichthys pietschi

2013: New on www.frogfish.ch

2012: New on www.frogfish.ch

2011: New on www.frogfish.ch

2010: New on www.frogfish.ch

2009: New on www.frogfish.ch

photo of a frogfish (Clown frogfish)  - <em>Antennarius maculatus</em> - Foto eines Anglerfisches (Warzen-Anglerfisch)

Frogfish Slideshow - Frogfish-Babies Slideshow

I identified all frogfishes (anglerfishes) to my best knowledge. Frogfishes are specially difficult to identify (see tips for identification) so mistakes are possible of course! Please write to me, if you have any questions or you would like to send me photos of frogfishes. Latin names according to the newest scientific findings, ITIS Standard Report and Fishbase.


. Copyright Teresa Zubi

This website was part of www.starfish.ch and was launched in October 2008 as a seperate site