Painted Frogfish

Adults are usually found sitting on or beside sponges, while juveniles tend to sit in the open on sand or reef. Many juveniles are black with scattered orange or yellow spots and blue-edged fins, whereas adults can be almost any colour.

Adults live on shallow, sheltered coral and rocky reefs, rubble, lagoons and sandy areas with a cover of sponges and algae. They have been recorded from the surface to 75m but are usually found shallower than 16m. They are regularly seen by divers in Indonesia (Lembeh Strait, Bali, Komodo, Flores), the Philippines, Borneo and the Maldives. In Australia they occur from the Houtman Abrolhos Islands in Western Australia around the north to Sydney, and at Lord Howe Island. Divers in New South Wales have photographed them in Botany Bay and Jervis Bay.

Appearance

The body is short, deep and globular, with no scales; the skin is covered in tiny forked spinules and many small, low warts. The largest recorded adults reach 30cm in total length, but most seen by divers are 10 - 20cm. Colour is extremely variable: whitish, cream, yellow, orange, pink, red, brown or black, usually with dark circular spots of various sizes and paler saddles on the shoulder and tail base. The tail fin nearly always carries three pale-edged spots. Dark individuals have white tips to the pectoral fin rays, and some are solid black with no markings.

The fishing rod (illicium) is darkly banded and nearly twice as long as the second dorsal spine. It ends in an elongate tuft of flattened appendages. The closest look-alike is the Warty Frogfish, Antennarius maculatus, which has large, obvious warts on its body and fins and a club-shaped second dorsal spine, where the Painted Frogfish’s warts are small and its second spine tapers. Young Painted Frogfish are also often confused with the Giant Frogfish, Antennarius commerson.

Behaviour

Adults lead a solitary life and are strongly territorial outside the breeding period. They remain still for hours or days in a chosen location, relying entirely on crypsis to avoid predators and deceive prey. When moving, they walk across the substrate using specialized, elbow-like pectoral fins. If startled, they can propel themselves through the water by expelling pressurized water from tiny, jet-like gill openings positioned behind their pectoral fins. A change of colour to match a new sponge or coral can take several days.

Feeding

They feed primarily on small reef fish, crustaceans, and shrimp. The hunting mechanism is one of the fastest strikes in the animal kingdom, taking as little as six milliseconds. The frogfish wiggles its lure above its mouth to mimic an injured prey; when a curious creature approaches, the frogfish expands its oral cavity to create a powerful vacuum, engulfing prey up to its own body size whole.

Life cycle

Breeding begins with courtship displays where the male follows the female as her belly swells with eggs. The pair ascends into the water column to release a buoyant, gel-like egg mass known as an egg raft, which floats with ocean currents. After hatching, the larvae drift among the oceans plankton for one to two months before settling onto shallow reefs to undergo metamorphosis into juveniles.

Dangers

Harmless to divers. They possess no venomous spines or aggressive tendencies toward humans.

Threats

The Painted Frogfish is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, assessed in September 2021, and is rated as having low vulnerability to fishing.

Relationship with people

Highly sought after by underwater photographers and muck divers due to their unique appearance and camouflage skills. They are occasionally collected for the private aquarium trade, where they require specialized live feeding and solitary housing.

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