Facts of Frogfish, A Magical Creature from the Sea
24th edition of Marine Life monthly post. Marine Life post published every 19th of the month. It aims to share information on marine life species and to promote their conservation. All images here are taken by Indah Susanti unless stated otherwise.
Frogfish in Ambon (Indonesia) – Click for larger image
Sometimes I get the feeling that the frogfish is a magical creature from the sea. Blame it on ‘The Princess and the Frog’ movie and ‘The Frog Prince’ story 😀
Well, the frogfish is not the prettiest fish in the ocean, but its face gives the fish a character. In my imagination, it could be a magical creature who is grumpy and weird with super power to camouflage and fast suction. Sometimes the frogfish look like a clumsy species with a bumpy body and awkward “walk”.
Followings are the facts about the frogfish.
The frogfish is a fish that walks. The fish walks with sides fins that have joints like toes. They can swim too. This video on walking frogfish was made by Dave Zeller.
The fish camouflage so well that sometimes they look like corals. They can change the colors of their body to match to the surrounding.
The camouflage is not for protection but to hunt the prey. When the prey gets closer to the frogfish, the frogfish uses its lure then opens its mouth rapidly to create suction that makes the prey is drawn into its mouth. The frogfish suction is the fastest in the fish world (source). The following video of how the frogfish hunting its prey was made by Fred Moberg.
Frogfish eats other frogfish, although it is not their main diet. While practicing cannibalism, frogfish usually eat shrimps and other fishes as their daily diet.
There is numerous number frogfish species and by far I find the Hairy frogfish and the Psychedelic frogfish are the unique ones because of their unusual looks. These frogfish could be found in Ambon (Indonesia).
Now, how do you find the frogfish? Could they be magical creatures from the sea?
indahs: dive, travel & photography 
Not sure how magical the frogfish is, but your frogfish photos surely are!
Thank you so much Tina! Your comment made my day 🙂
What an interesting post, Indah! Your pictures are great. Loved the baby frogfish in particular 🐡 and the walking and hunting videos were informative – a very special fish indeed. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much! This fish is one of my faves. Although Indonesia hold the largest species of the frogfish, they are still available to be seen in many part of the ocean worldwide – including in the USA. I am planning to dive in Florida next year, I hope I get to see them too 🙂
Beautiful creature..like iwak sapu sapu
Indeed 🙂 Iwak sapu-sapu has variety of species and colors too – beautiful fish!
A real fantasy creature. I like it! Thanx for sharing the video.
Thank you so much for stopping by and reading this post 🙂
Oh my what a fascinating creature! Love your photos Indah.
Thank you, Sue!
This is so cool!!! So amazing how you could acually find them. The baby abd the hairy ones are my favorite. I was amazed how fast they can be for praying😲
Indeed 🙂 The babies are the most adorable ones. Sometimes it’s not easy to find them as they camouflage very well 🙂
What amazing creatures!
They are 🙂 Thank you for stipping by here 🙂
Such an informative post about frogfish, Indah. Didn’t know there was more than one type. Now I do 🙂 Who knows, maybe there is a frogfish that is a magical kind of fish. Maybe it can talk 😀 But it is very clever of it to camouflage to capture its prey, and the suction it makes sounds very powerful. It sounds like a kind of vacuum, like the frogfish is cleaning out its prey and food in front of it 😀
They actually look a lot like corals to me from your shots. Very deceptive, very clever.
I would love to talk to them if they could 😀 The underwater world is fascinating, isn’t it 🙂 Thank you so much, Mabel!