Commerson's frogfish or the giant frogfish, ''Antennarius commerson'', is a

marine fish Saltwater fish, also called marine fish or sea fish, are fish that live in seawater. Saltwater fish can swim and live alone or in a large group called a school. Saltwater fish are very commonly kept in aquariums for entertainment. Many saltwater f ...

belonging to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Antennariidae.

Description

Commerson's frogfish grows up to . Like other members of its family, it has a globular, extensible body. The soft skin is covered with small dermal

spinule Spinules are small spines or thorns (vertebral columns) that are part of biological and manmade structures. The word originates from the Latin word and is often used in botany and zoology. The presence or absence of spinules, and their shape, can ...

s. Its skin is partially covered with a few small, wartlike protuberances, some variably shaped, scab-like blotches, and a few, small eye spots (

ocelli A simple eye (sometimes called a pigment pit) refers to a form of eye or an optical arrangement composed of a single lens and without an elaborate retina such as occurs in most vertebrates. In this sense "simple eye" is distinct from a multi-le ...

) reminiscent of the holes in

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...

s. Its large mouth is

prognathous Prognathism, also called Habsburg jaw or Habsburgs' jaw primarily in the context of its prevalence amongst members of the House of Habsburg, is a positional relationship of the mandible or maxilla to the skeletal base where either of the jaws pr ...

, allowing it to consume prey as large as itself. Their coloration is extremely variable, as they tend to match their environments.

Frogfish Frogfishes are any member of the anglerfish family Antennariidae, of the order Lophiiformes. Antennariids are known as anglerfish in Australia, where the term "frogfish" refers to members of the unrelated family Batrachoididae. Frogfishes are ...

can change their coloration in a few weeks. However, the dominant coloration goes from grey to black, passing through a whole range of related hues, such as cream, pink, yellow, red, and brown, and also usually with circular eye spots or blotches that are darker than the background. Juvenile specimens can easily be confused with related ''

Antennarius maculatus The warty frogfish or clown frogfish (''Antennarius maculatus'') is a marine fish belonging to the family Antennariidae. Description The warty frogfish grows up to long. Like other members of its family, it has a globulous, extensible body, a ...

'' and ''

Antennarius pictus The painted frogfish or spotted frogfish, ''Antennarius pictus'', is a marine fish belonging to the family Antennariidae. Description The painted frogfish grows up to long. Like other members of its family, it has a globulous, extensible body ...

''. To distinguish these species, ''A. maculatus'' usually has red or orange margins on all fins, while ''A. maculatus'' has numerous warts on the skin, and ''A. pictus'' is covered with ocelli. ''A. pictus'' has three eye spots on its

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as s ...

. The first dorsal spine, the

illicium ''Illicium'' is a genus of flowering plants treated as part of the family Schisandraceae,

, is modified for use as a fishing rod. Its extremity is endowed with a characteristic

esca The anglerfish are fish of the teleost order Lophiiformes (). They are bony fish named for their characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified luminescent fin ray (the esca or illicium) acts as a lure for other fish. The luminescence co ...

(lure), which resembles a small fish or shrimp with a pinkish to brownish coloration. The illicium is twice the length of the second dorsal spine and is often darkly banded. The second dorsal spine is practically straight and is mobile, the third one is bent towards the back of the body, and both are membranously attached to the head. They are well separated from each other and also from the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

.Pietsch & Grobecker, ''Frogfishes of the world'', Stanford University Press, 1987, The

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

s are angled, and the

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two e ...

s help the frogfish move on the bottom and keep a stable position for

ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactics, military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbru ...

Distribution and habitat

''Antennarius commerson'' lives in the

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and subtropical waters from the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

to the eastern coasts of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

. It is found in lagoons and sheltered rocky and coral reefs. They are usually associated with big

s, on underwater ropes, on jetty pillars, or any structures down to deep, with an average occurrence at deep.

Feeding and behavior

As all

frogfish Frogfishes are any member of the anglerfish family Antennariidae, of the order Lophiiformes. Antennariids are known as anglerfish in Australia, where the term "frogfish" refers to members of the unrelated family Batrachoididae. Frogfishes are ...

es, ''A. hispidus'' is a voracious

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other ...

which attacks any small animals that pass within range, mainly other fish, but sometimes even congeners. Commerson's frogfish has a

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

and solitary lifestyle. They gather during the mating period, but do not tolerate each other any more after the act of

fertilization Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a new individual organism or offspring and initiate its development. Pro ...

. The female can kill or eat the male if he stays close. It uses a small tuft of flattened appendage as a fishing lure.Dianne J. Bray & Vanessa J. Thompson, 2011, Giant Anglerfish, Antennarius commerson, in Fishes of Australia, accessed 07 Oct 2014, http://www.fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/2846

References

External links

*
Frogfish.ch

MarineSpecies.org

Cornu.free.fr
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1115448 Antennariidae Fish of Hawaii Taxa named by Bernard Germain de Lacépède Fish described in 1798