
Painted Frogfish - Antennarius pictus
The Painted Frogfish - Antennarius pictus can be highly variable in colour and they are capable to change their colours within weeks to adapt to their surrounding. However, the dominant coloration goes from white to black, passing through a whole range of related nuances such as cream, pink, yellow, red, and brown, usually with circular eye spots darker than the background color and/or with saddles and blotches.
This picture show 2 Frogfishes; the smaller one on the left is the Male and the bigger one on the right is a Female.
Usually, when the Female is carrying eggs, she may have a suitor, sometimes up to 3 suitors. If there are more than 1 male, they will actually jostle/fight for their 'right' to mate with her. However, this may takes some time, they will then end-up gathering together, next to each other. From time to time, the Male will approach the Female, 'walking' all over her and with his pectoral fins, pressing to her body and if he is the right suitor and she is ready to release here egg, they will then swim up to the water column. She will swirl in a circle releasing her eggs in a 'ribbon mass' and the male will release his sperm to fertilize the eggs. The egg ribbon mass will float to the water column until baby frogfishes hatched from it.
Check out this video of the mating and egg releasing of another species of frogfish :

The painted frogfish or spotted frogfish, ''Antennarius pictus'', is a marine fish belonging to the family Antennariidae.
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