Frogfish

Photo: jvicd91 · CC BY-NC

Painted frogfish cling motionless to the wreck's sponge-encrusted surfaces, their lumpy skin texture and colour-matching ability making them nearly invisible until they lunge at passing prey. They are ambush specialists whose strike is one of the fastest feeding movements in the vertebrate world, lasting under six milliseconds. The nutrient-rich microhabitat of a coral-encrusted wreck provides ideal conditions for this species.