Subject:
A Hispid Frogfish (Antennarius hispidus), also known as the Shaggy Frogfish, lies in wait to ambush its next meal.
The Hispid Frogfish is often confused with the Striated Frogfish (Antennarius striatus) due to its resemblance in markings and colour. Both species belong, just like the Indian Frogfish (Antennarius indicus) and Spitlure frogfish (Antennarius scaber), to the same group and have common characteristics like elongated blotches and dark pigmented streaks. The best way to tell both species apart is to compare their lures.
The lure of frogfishes is species-specific, meaning that each frogfish has a lure of a certain shape or form by which the frogfish species can be identified. It is made out of two pieces: the rod or illicium, which is the very first dorsal spine of the angler, and the esca, a fleshy appendage that will attract curious prey. The frogfish catches its prey by waving the esca to attract a curious or hungry fish. When the fish comes within the frogfish’s reach, the predator will open its mouth so fast and wide that the whole action creates a vacuum, sucking the prey into its mouth in what is believed to be the fastest suck and grab movement of any animal in the world. The whole action takes less than 6 milliseconds, so fast that a frogfish can catch a single fish out of a school or shoal of fish without the other fish noticing the disappearance of one of their peers.
The esca of the Striated Frogfish has a polychaete worm-like shape, and the esca of the Hispid Frogfish is a round ball-shaped pompom-like lure, imitating a tube worm (with some imagination). Escas come in a lot of different sizes and forms; worms, shrimps, little fish, etc. The Hispid Frogfish of Gilimanuk Bay in western Bali/Indonesia has, compared to other Hispid Frogfish, a much bigger lure, and this pompom-shaped esca stands on a much shorter rod or illicium. The difference is so significant that this area-specific species has received the name Pompom Frogfish.
The Hispid Frogfish comes, in nearly all observations, in a yellow to brownish-orange variation and very rarely in black compared to the Striated Frogfish, which can also come in a “hairy” variation and is often black-coloured. The habitat of both species also differs slightly. The Striated Frogfish is found more often sitting or crawling on or near the bottom, whereas the Hispid Frogfish is found more often on coral branches surrounded by muddy substrate, at least for the ones from Gilimanuk Bay.
Technique:
Those who dive the shallow waters of Gilimanuk Bay know that the visibility of this bay-like estuary near the Bali Strait, which separates Bali from Java, can be very poor. Brownish or greenish water with, at some moments, a lot of suspended particles often reduces the visibility to a few meters. By working with layers during the editing process and adding a Gaussian blur to the surroundings of the frogfish, most of the suspended and drifting particles, although still present, became less noticeable.
Filming location:
This short underwater videoclip has been filmed in Bali, Indonesia 🇮🇩
For other in-depth descriptions of frogfish please go to vlog post 183 about a juvenile Painted Frogfish https://www.beyondscuba.com/post/juvenile-painted-frogfish-antennarius-pictus-shelters-next-to-a-seastar-pentaster-obtusatus
and vlog post 9 about a Warty or Clown Frogfish https://www.beyondscuba.com/post/warty-frogfish
and vlog post 58 about a juvenile Clown or Warty Frogfish https://www.beyondscuba.com/post/juvenile-clown-frogfish
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