Frog Fish on Cedral Wall

[sefuchs]

Check out the Frog Fish found on Cedral Wall. Tried to upload a video of the little guy 'hopping' around but too large to upload. JP from ScubaLife Cozumel has a knack of finding all kinds of critters. He posted the videos and more photos on their Facebook page if you are interested.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Nice find!!

 

[Trailboss123]

Awesome! I have never seen a frog fish in Cozumel and never even considered keeping an eye out for one.

 

[Dan G]

Great find and nice pic. So I am curious, on a recent night dive on Yucab I saw what I am 99% certain were two batfish sitting side by side next to a coral head. I was well behind the group so there was no one around to confirm. I have never seen batfish before. Has anyone else seen batfish in Cozumel? Were my eyes completely deceiving me?

 

[jlyle]

Great find and nice pic. So I am curious, on a recent night dive on Yucab I saw what I am 99% certain were two batfish sitting side by side next to a coral head. I was well behind the group so there was no one around to confirm. I have never seen batfish before. Has anyone else seen batfish in Cozumel? Were my eyes completely deceiving me?

Batfish are certainly not "common" in Cozumel waters but they are known. There are a couple of species, roughback and long nose.

 

[brownie]

Great find and nice pic. So I am curious, on a recent night dive on Yucab I saw what I am 99% certain were two batfish sitting side by side next to a coral head. I was well behind the group so there was no one around to confirm. I have never seen batfish before. Has anyone else seen batfish in Cozumel? Were my eyes completely deceiving me?

Your eyes were not deceiving you! We saw 2 batfish on Yucab when I was there last month (March).

They were not the "red-lipped" variety that I have seen in the Pacific (Cocos and Galapagos).

I have not seen "froggies" in Cozumel, but will look for them in future trips.

 

[Pipehorse]

Check out the Frog Fish found on Cedral Wall. Tried to upload a video of the little guy 'hopping' around but too large to upload. JP from ScubaLife Cozumel has a knack of finding all kinds of critters. He posted the videos and more photos on their Facebook page if you are interested.

This looks like a Dwarf Frogfish (Antennarius pauciradiatus). Review of a Distribution Report for this species in the REEF database reveals that Cozumel is the most likely place in the Tropical Western Atlantic to find this species, having been observed 14 times out of 13039 surveys submitted from Cozumel Dwarf Frogfish Distribution Tropical Western Atlantic , only observed in total 62 times out of 185,000 surveys. A rarity indeed. The second most likely place to find them would be Blue Heron Bridge. Recent observations suggest that they can be "locally common" but are rarely observed because of their diminutive size, and excellent camouflage abilities. Bravo to anybody with the raptor like eyesight to find them.