Some friends of mine live in Bonaire six months out of the year, and emailed me this incredible report which they said I could share.....enjoy! It's a long story, so settle in...I particularly enjoyed it because while in Bonaire for two weeks over the winter holidays I was lucky enough to encounter the two frogfish referred to, and observe their courting behavior...
Hi everyone. I thought you might be interested in reading about a very lucky observation we made.
The following is a write up I just did for Jerry Ligon, the Naturalist for Sand Dollar/Bonaire Dive & Adventure. R.E.E.F requested the report for publication after hearing about our experience from Jerry.
Here it is:
Subject: Long Lure Frog Fish....egg raft release.
Observation date/time: April 4, 2003, 11:45AM
Observers: 3---Bill Wildin, Prawphan Wildin, Tim Wildin
Location: Bari Reef, Bonaire, N. A., 45 foot depth
Observation report written by Bill Wildin......billppw@aol.com
The Frog Fish observed has been a "resident" of Bari Reef for at least 6 months, (some say 9 months) remaining primarily within about a 30 foot circular area, at a depth ranging from about 25 feet to 45 feet It has become known as the Sand Dollar Condos'/Bonaire Dive and Adventure dive shop's resident frog fish. Due to its easily located home area near an easily identified buoy line near the pier, it has probably become the most photographed frog fish of recent time.
I reside 6 months a year At Sand Dollar Condo Resort in Bonaire. Bari Reef is the "home reef" right in front of the resort. My wife, Prawphan, and I customarily make at least one dive almost every day on Bari Reef. I often make 2 dives a day on Bari.
Our usual dive routine is to swing by the frog fish at the beginning of our dive and at the end. As a result, we are very familiar with this particular fish and her habits.
On April 4th, 2003, our son Tim was visiting and diving with us. As we were getting ready, one of the divemasters said she had seen the frog fish that morning and "she looked really pregnant." We began our dive, as is usual, by going out to say good morning to the frog fish. She was fat, as she had been at times in the past. Her color was a darker green than usual....which had been the case for 2 or 3 days prior. She had moved from the previous afternoon, when she had been on one of her customary sponges in 27 feet of water. She was now at another of her favorite spots, on a very small rope sponge at about 45 feet.
After our morning greetings to the frog fish, we continued our dive. As we neared her territory near the end of our dive, I was in the lead. I was thinking about veering off in a slightly different approach to our exit point, but luckily I decided to get near enough to glance from a distance to determine if the frog fish had moved from her last observed spot. She had not, but I noted that something did seem different. She was in a head down position, exposing her stomach. Her color seemed different. At first I thought maybe I had never seen her underside and that it must be a lighter color, so I approached her to take a better look.
As I neared, I noticed a small amount of a gelatinous substance (much like a small portion of a jelly fish) that seemed to be stuck to her. She seemed to be swaying or rocking a bit, looking as if she was trying to dislodge it by swiping it against the rope sponge. Suddenly, I realized what I was observing. The gelatinous material was protruding from her. She was in the process of releasing her eggs......which as I knew from reading Ned DeLoach's book, "Reef Fish Behavior," should be a "coiled raft" of eggs. I also recalled from the book that the only documented observations of frog fish spawnings were in aquariums, not in a natural environment.
I quickly signaled my wife and son to join me, pointing to the frog fish. They were near enough to see her location and watched her as they swam over from about 15-20 feet away. A few seconds after they were hovering with me about 5 feet over the fish, she gave a violent shudder and the egg raft explosively ejected from her body.
No male frog fish was present, so fertilization did not occur as described in the book. A male had been sharing her territory for a few months, but seemed to have disappeared about a week prior to this event. Is it possible that Frog Fish are capable of internal fertilization? Or does a female release her eggs when they reach a certain stage regardless of whether a male is around? It's a question for the scientists. Another difference from the book was that the female never left the bottom.....never rose up in the water column while releasing her eggs.
Like the description in the book, the eggs were encased in a coiled raft......rolled up from each end toward the center. The photo of the coiled raft in the book is very much like what the raft looked like immediately after ejection. However, unlike the book's description, the egg raft was soft and pliable and began to unroll within 10 seconds or so. The book said the raft softens within 48 hours and then unrolls.
We caught the egg raft, letting it drape over our hands, as it slowly floated toward the surface. It looked and felt gelatinous, although not sticky or slimy....more like wet Saran wrap (plastic wrap). I would estimate its size as about 18 inches long by 4 inches wide. The thickness was 1/8 to 1/4 inch. My sons eyes are much better than mine and he says the raft was filled with tiny white dots.....evidently the eggs themselves. My wife and I saw only a translucent gelatinous material. We did not handle the egg raft long (one minute at the longest as we passed it around) since we did not want to unduly contaminate it.
All of us noted that no fish came in to attempt to inspect or eat the eggs.....not on release, not while we were inspecting it, nor when we released it and it continued its float toward the surface. Many, many fish were in the area in close proximity, but none seemed to be attracted to it.
After the eggs were ejected, my focus was on the egg raft and I stopped observing the fish. My wife says she did continue to observe the fish periodically and that the frog fish seemed to "stumble around" for a short period, and obviously looked much thinner. Less than one minute after releasing the eggs, the frog fish began swimming and my wife directed my attention to her movement. We agree that her swimming (and crawling) motions seemed "normal" based on our previous observations of her swimming, settling on the bottom, then crawling, then swimming, etc. The direction she seemed to be heading was back toward one of her shallower perching areas.
We had been in the water for a little over an hour. We were chilled and it was time to end our dive. We saluted the frog fish, said goodbye and headed in. We had been extremely lucky to have been at the right spot at the right time to witness such an event. Had we come 30 seconds earlier or 30 seconds later, we probably would have noticed nothing.........except an obviously thinner frog fish.
While the world at large will not understand our exhilaration over such an event, other divers will. Each dive is an adventure. There is always an excitement over what you "might see" each time you descend for a dive. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. When you don't, you just have to put up with the normal old fantastic, beautiful, fascinating underwater world. We got very lucky on this dive.
Our hope is that by sharing this experience, it add to the data base on frog fish spawning.
END
Hi everyone. I thought you might be interested in reading about a very lucky observation we made.
The following is a write up I just did for Jerry Ligon, the Naturalist for Sand Dollar/Bonaire Dive & Adventure. R.E.E.F requested the report for publication after hearing about our experience from Jerry.
Here it is:
Subject: Long Lure Frog Fish....egg raft release.
Observation date/time: April 4, 2003, 11:45AM
Observers: 3---Bill Wildin, Prawphan Wildin, Tim Wildin
Location: Bari Reef, Bonaire, N. A., 45 foot depth
Observation report written by Bill Wildin......billppw@aol.com
The Frog Fish observed has been a "resident" of Bari Reef for at least 6 months, (some say 9 months) remaining primarily within about a 30 foot circular area, at a depth ranging from about 25 feet to 45 feet It has become known as the Sand Dollar Condos'/Bonaire Dive and Adventure dive shop's resident frog fish. Due to its easily located home area near an easily identified buoy line near the pier, it has probably become the most photographed frog fish of recent time.
I reside 6 months a year At Sand Dollar Condo Resort in Bonaire. Bari Reef is the "home reef" right in front of the resort. My wife, Prawphan, and I customarily make at least one dive almost every day on Bari Reef. I often make 2 dives a day on Bari.
Our usual dive routine is to swing by the frog fish at the beginning of our dive and at the end. As a result, we are very familiar with this particular fish and her habits.
On April 4th, 2003, our son Tim was visiting and diving with us. As we were getting ready, one of the divemasters said she had seen the frog fish that morning and "she looked really pregnant." We began our dive, as is usual, by going out to say good morning to the frog fish. She was fat, as she had been at times in the past. Her color was a darker green than usual....which had been the case for 2 or 3 days prior. She had moved from the previous afternoon, when she had been on one of her customary sponges in 27 feet of water. She was now at another of her favorite spots, on a very small rope sponge at about 45 feet.
After our morning greetings to the frog fish, we continued our dive. As we neared her territory near the end of our dive, I was in the lead. I was thinking about veering off in a slightly different approach to our exit point, but luckily I decided to get near enough to glance from a distance to determine if the frog fish had moved from her last observed spot. She had not, but I noted that something did seem different. She was in a head down position, exposing her stomach. Her color seemed different. At first I thought maybe I had never seen her underside and that it must be a lighter color, so I approached her to take a better look.
As I neared, I noticed a small amount of a gelatinous substance (much like a small portion of a jelly fish) that seemed to be stuck to her. She seemed to be swaying or rocking a bit, looking as if she was trying to dislodge it by swiping it against the rope sponge. Suddenly, I realized what I was observing. The gelatinous material was protruding from her. She was in the process of releasing her eggs......which as I knew from reading Ned DeLoach's book, "Reef Fish Behavior," should be a "coiled raft" of eggs. I also recalled from the book that the only documented observations of frog fish spawnings were in aquariums, not in a natural environment.
I quickly signaled my wife and son to join me, pointing to the frog fish. They were near enough to see her location and watched her as they swam over from about 15-20 feet away. A few seconds after they were hovering with me about 5 feet over the fish, she gave a violent shudder and the egg raft explosively ejected from her body.
No male frog fish was present, so fertilization did not occur as described in the book. A male had been sharing her territory for a few months, but seemed to have disappeared about a week prior to this event. Is it possible that Frog Fish are capable of internal fertilization? Or does a female release her eggs when they reach a certain stage regardless of whether a male is around? It's a question for the scientists. Another difference from the book was that the female never left the bottom.....never rose up in the water column while releasing her eggs.
Like the description in the book, the eggs were encased in a coiled raft......rolled up from each end toward the center. The photo of the coiled raft in the book is very much like what the raft looked like immediately after ejection. However, unlike the book's description, the egg raft was soft and pliable and began to unroll within 10 seconds or so. The book said the raft softens within 48 hours and then unrolls.
We caught the egg raft, letting it drape over our hands, as it slowly floated toward the surface. It looked and felt gelatinous, although not sticky or slimy....more like wet Saran wrap (plastic wrap). I would estimate its size as about 18 inches long by 4 inches wide. The thickness was 1/8 to 1/4 inch. My sons eyes are much better than mine and he says the raft was filled with tiny white dots.....evidently the eggs themselves. My wife and I saw only a translucent gelatinous material. We did not handle the egg raft long (one minute at the longest as we passed it around) since we did not want to unduly contaminate it.
All of us noted that no fish came in to attempt to inspect or eat the eggs.....not on release, not while we were inspecting it, nor when we released it and it continued its float toward the surface. Many, many fish were in the area in close proximity, but none seemed to be attracted to it.
After the eggs were ejected, my focus was on the egg raft and I stopped observing the fish. My wife says she did continue to observe the fish periodically and that the frog fish seemed to "stumble around" for a short period, and obviously looked much thinner. Less than one minute after releasing the eggs, the frog fish began swimming and my wife directed my attention to her movement. We agree that her swimming (and crawling) motions seemed "normal" based on our previous observations of her swimming, settling on the bottom, then crawling, then swimming, etc. The direction she seemed to be heading was back toward one of her shallower perching areas.
We had been in the water for a little over an hour. We were chilled and it was time to end our dive. We saluted the frog fish, said goodbye and headed in. We had been extremely lucky to have been at the right spot at the right time to witness such an event. Had we come 30 seconds earlier or 30 seconds later, we probably would have noticed nothing.........except an obviously thinner frog fish.
While the world at large will not understand our exhilaration over such an event, other divers will. Each dive is an adventure. There is always an excitement over what you "might see" each time you descend for a dive. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. When you don't, you just have to put up with the normal old fantastic, beautiful, fascinating underwater world. We got very lucky on this dive.
Our hope is that by sharing this experience, it add to the data base on frog fish spawning.
END
