Painted frogfish
Amazing fact
Painted frogfish eggs are embedded in a jelly-like mass that floats in the sea.
Museums Victoria
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Painted frogfish eggs are embedded in a jelly-like mass that floats in the sea.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Painted frogfish
- Scientific name
- Antennarius pictus
- Japanese name
- イロカエルアンコウ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Lophiiformes
- Family
- Antennariidae
- Genus
- Antennarius
Where the name “Painted frogfish” comes from
The genus name comes from a Latin word meaning sensory organ. The name refers to a modified dorsal-fin spine.
Museums VictoriaA frogfish that lives on rocky and coral reefs from the Izu Peninsula to the Ryukyu Islands, and in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
It walks around the seafloor on pectoral fins that look like front legs, and does not swim around much.
Its colors and patterns vary a lot. Its dorsal fin has a smooth outline, so it can be told apart from the striated frogfish, whose dorsal fin is jagged.
How the Painted frogfish lives
It stays still and wiggles a threadlike lure in front of its mouth to attract prey. It feeds mainly on other fish. The young drift in the sea before settling on a reef.
Museums VictoriaBasic data
- Range
- Indo-Pacific, and elsewhere
Where the Painted frogfish has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- イロカエルアンコウ
- 简体中文
- 白斑躄鱼
- 繁體中文
- 白斑躄魚
- 한국어
- 흑점박씬벵이
- Français
- Antennaire peint
- Deutsch
- Gemalter Anglerfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-sapo-pintado
- Italiano
- Pesce rana dipinto
- ไทย
- ปลากบลายจุด
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — イロカエルアンコウChecked: 2026-11-04
- Museums Victoria — Fishes of Australia — Painted Anglerfish, Antennarius pictusChecked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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