Frogfish Babies!

We were very lucky to come across a very pregnant female frogfish at a site close to our house a few weeks ago. She was all puffed up with eggs and about a foot away was a little yellow male at the ready. We didn’t get to see them spawn but my friend did. He deserved to after visiting her every night for the past 3 weeks hoping to catch it, from a respectful distance of course!

Then I realized, as much as I love these guys, I know little about their reproductive process. Considering they really don’t swim, how do they even find each other?

The little male looked poised for action with his little “foot” on the coral head seemingly ready to spring as soon as she said the word. But how did he know to seek her out? Does she have a scent or some other mechanism that calls the males nearby to her? Nature is mind boggling. I’m still not sure how he found her but he did.

I found this little guy a bit north of where the pair was about 2 weeks before I saw him with the female. I wonder if this is the male that was with her? It looks extremely similar and I couldn’t find him north again so it could be.

When the female is full of eggs, up to 180,000, she becomes buoyant. The smaller male will nudge her into the water column toward the surface where she releases her eggs then he fertilizes them before quickly settling back down on the reef before being eaten.

What happens next? The fertilized eggs float along until the babies hatch anywhere from 2-5 days after fertilization. The baby frogfish will go with the flow for as long as two months before settling on a reef and starting the process all over again.

Video footage of the couple:

We’ve gone back a few times since. The little male was still there until about a week ago and had started changing colors. Then he disappeared but she looks puffed up with eggs. It’s possible he was eaten. I’m not sure what will happen to her and her eggs if another male doesn’t show up. We’re going to visit her later today and see if we can find a male nearby.

Thank you nature for always amazing me!