Photography Fun

[Brian]

More Frogfish, including one with wife for scale on this Giant Frogfish. Frogfish are considered to be one of the most complicated and aggressive examples of mimicry. Frogfish can camouflage to their surroundings.

Frogfish, also known as anglerfish, are lie-in-wait camoflaged predators. They have a specialized lure called an Esca. The Illicium is like a fishing rod and the Esca is the bait. Using its fishing rod and lure the frogfish will dangle the bait in front of its head. An unsuspecting little fish will see the lure swimming towards a seemingly easy meal and become instant lunch. Frogfish move slowly, but have one of the fastest strike speeds of any animal on earth. They move by gulping water with its massive mouth and shooting it out their gills. The body moves very little as the frogfish huffs and puffs its way through the water column, I got to watch it move a bit (didn't get video of that moment). Most of the time it sits motionless, waiting for lunch to get close having been fooled into thinking that it is just another sponge, or attracted by the lure mechanism.

[Brian]

Wakatobi.

[Brian]

Frogfish from raw file.

[Brian]

San Diego Zoo.

[Brian]

More Zoo.