Family Antennariidae

Antennariidae

Taxonomy: Family with 12 genera with 43 described species; all genera and 27 described species known from Australian waters.

Distribution, ecology and habitat: Found in tropical seas worldwide (except Mediterranean), with most species occurring in the Indo-Australian Archipelago; also live in temperate waters in Australia. Sedentary bottom-dwelling fishes which live in a variety of habitats, from 0-300 m, most commonly on shallow reefs; a single pelagic species clings to floating sargassum seaweed.

Characteristics:
Mouth very large, up-turned, jaws with irregular rows of small villiform teeth; gill opening very small, restricted to a small pore behind and below pectoral-fin base; three dorsal-fin spines, the first modified as a lure on the tip of the snout, lure comprising a "fishing rod" (illicium) usually tipped with a fleshy bait (esca); pectoral-fin lobe elongate, leg-like; scales absent, skin spinulose or naked, often covered with filaments or appendages.

Size: Reach 35 cm SL in length.

Food and feeding: Voracious ambush predators which feed on fishes and crustaceans.

Reproduction and early life history: Oviparous, with external fertilization. Females usually lay thousands of pelagic eggs (to 1 mm) in a large buoyant gelatinous mass; size at hatching reported to be 1.6 mm.

The pelagic Sargassum Anglerfish, Histrio histrio, lays floating eggs rafts amongst Sargassum. Some species lay larger (to more than 4 mm) demersal eggs which are brooded in various ways - the egg mass attached to the substrate and guarded, held in the pectoral-fin axil, or, in one species, Lophiocharon trisignatus, attached to skin of male; the larvae of demersal eggs are much larger and more advanced in development. Anglerfish larvae have deep robust bodies, a low myomere count, an inflated dermal sac, pelvic fins and small gill openings below pectoral-fin base.

Larvae of several Australian species are treated in Leis and Carson-Ewart (2000).

Fisheries: no commercial interest.

Remarks: Anglerfishes are superbly camouflaged ambush predators with highly variable colour patterns to match their surroundings. They attract their prey to within striking distance with a conspicuous lure or 'bait' that may, among other objects, resemble a marine worm or tiny octopus. The bait is patiently waved in front of the mouth to attract crustaceans and smaller fishes which are quickly engulfed in the enormous mouth.

Australian species:

References:

Leis, J.M. & B.M. Carson-Ewart. (eds). 2000. The larvae of Indo-Pacific coastal fishes. An identification guide to marine fish larvae. (Fauna Malesiana Handbooks 2). E.J. Brill, Leiden. 870 pp.

Moser, H.G. (ed.) 1996. The Early Stages of Fishes in the California Current Region. CalCOFI Atlas No.33 Ed. Allen Press Inc, Lawrence, Kansas. 1505 pp.

Pietsch, T.W. 1981. The osteology and relationships of the anglerfish genus Tetrabrachium, with comments on lophiiform classification. U. S. Fish. Bull. 79(3): 387-419.

Pietsch, T.W. 1984. The genera of frogfishes (family Antennariidae). Copeia 1984(1): 27-44.

Pietsch, T.W. 1999. Antennariidae: Frogfishes (also seamice, anglerfishes), p. 2013-2015, In Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem. Species identification guide for fisheries purposes. The living marine resources of the western central Pacific. Batoid fishes, chimeras and bony fishes. Part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome.

Pietsch, T.W. & D.B. Grobecker. 1987. Frogfishes of the World: Systematics, Zoogeography, and Behavioral Ecology. Stanford University Press, Stanford, xxii + 420 pp.

Pietsch, Theodore W. and Kenaley, Christopher P. 2005. Antennariidae. Frogfishes. Version 01 November 2005 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Antennariidae/21993/2005.11.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/