Painted frogfish

Photo: karinemanko · CC BY-NC

Frogfish are sit-and-wait ambush predators that use a modified dorsal spine (the illicium) tipped with a lure to attract fish prey within striking distance. The painted frogfish is the largest and most variable in colour, able to match sponges of virtually any hue from bright orange to pale yellow to mottled purple. Their strike is one of the fastest movements in the animal kingdom: a full engulfment takes less than 6 milliseconds. Weda Bay's pristine sponge-covered reef walls support some of the highest frogfish densities in Halmahera.