The common Caribbean frogfish, usually on a sponge whose colour it matches, with a lure about twice the length of the illicium. Yellow, black, red and grey individuals occur on the same reef.
To about 20 cm, and like all frogfish a lump rather than a fish: no scales, a huge upward-facing mouth, and pectoral fins used as feet. The lure is what names it — the fleshy esca sits on a rod about twice the length of the rod itself, longer in proportion than in the other Caribbean frogfish. Colour is no help at all: yellow, orange, red, black, white and grey individuals occur on the same reef, and one animal can change over weeks.
It sits on a sponge whose colour it matches, waits, and takes prey with a strike measured in milliseconds — among the fastest feeding movements recorded in any vertebrate. It does not chase and it does not move much, so a frogfish found on one sponge is usually on the same sponge the next day, which is how guides keep them. It is found by searching sponges rather than by scanning the reef, and the usual mistake is looking for a fish shape instead of looking for a sponge with a mouth in it.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.