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Project Noah Nature School
Lophiocharon lithinostomus
Medium sized Frogfish around 10 cm in size mostly brownish/greyish with mottled green. Long Illicium (rod), nearly no esca (lure, bait). Illicium covered with dermal spinules. Rows of 2 to 4 nearly transparent ocelli (eye spots) on the membrane between the spines of the caudal fin. Even the inside of the mouth is mottled! Large nostrils.
Tropical coral reefs, among coral rubbles and crevices.
This is the second time this year to see this Frogfish brooding his Eggs. Spotted by my regular dive guide when I go diving in Malapascua, he has been keeping an eye on this one for over a month and told me about it and naturally, I was very excited to see it again. Pic#1 shows the Embryos very well developed but not ready for release yet, still a bit of yolk sac in it. But the eyes can be seen very clearly with slightly opened mouth. The size of the Eggs are around 4-5 mm, so the embryos are much smaller. Pic#2 shows the Male carrying the Eggs on the side of his body. Please watch the video to see how he aerates the Eggs by wiggling his body and tail.
Spotted on Dec 22, 2014
Submitted on Dec 26, 2014
10 Comments
Thanks, @Marta :)
Wow! Super nice spotting!
Thanks, @Hayley :)
@Ashley, Look forward to spotting those critters with you :)
So amazing! Thanks for sharing!
I would love to see some! We have all kinds of aquatic and semi-aquatic critters to find me when I come haha. Right now that flying frog and pitcher plant frog are top of the list :)
Ha ha, those Froggies are beautiful/gorgeous in their ugly/creepy ways :D
As I am familiar with the behavior, I just had to wait for a bit for him to aerate the eggs and capture the behavior on video :)
I guess its the same with all wild life encounters, if you are familiar with them, you might have the opportunity to capture some interesting behaviors :)
Will make sure you get to see them when you come here for diving although its not easy to find the tiny ones ;)
The creepy part is referring to the father's face....I mean it's cute too but he's just blankly staring to blend in and it's just weird haha. Awesome that you got the behavior on video of him being a good dad :)
Thanks, @Mark and @Ashley.
They are not creepy, but so cuuuute! :)
Amazing.
This is incredibly awesome, Albert! A little creepy too, but more awesome :)