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Spot-tail Anglerfish

Spot-tail Anglerfish

Lophiocharon Trisignatus

Quick Facts

Scientific nameLophiocharon Trisignatus

Other namesRough Angler Fish, Spotted-tail Anglerfish, Threespot Frogfish

FamilyAnglerfish / Antennaridae

Distribution

Habitat & AU DistributionRocky, rubble reefs & areas

The Spot-tail Anglerfish is a small, lumpy, slow-moving fish built for disappearing. Its mottled greenish-brown to reddish-orange body is covered in skin flaps and fleshy tabs that make it look almost exactly like a sponge or a patch of encrusting algae on a rock.
Running across its tail membranes are rows of dark-edged transparent spots. These give the species its name, and they are one of the clearest ways to tell it apart from other anglerfishes.
Like all anglerfishes, it carries a built-in fishing rod on top of its head. This rod is long and bare, tipped with a fleshy lure that it wriggles to attract prey close enough to snatch.
The Spot-tail Anglerfish is found in Australia and through the wider tropical Indo-Pacific.
This species lives on the seafloor, usually among coral reefs and rocky areas where its camouflage works best. It rests almost motionless, relying on looking like part of the reef rather than swimming away from danger.
When prey comes close enough, the Spot-tail Anglerfish strikes with a very fast lunge. Anglerfishes are among the quickest ambush hunters in the sea, and the strike can be over in milliseconds.
Its pectoral fins are shaped like short, stubby arms and are attached broadly to the sides of its body. The fish uses these to prop itself up and shuffle along the bottom rather than swim freely.
One unusual feature of this species is the way its soft dorsal and anal fins connect directly to the base of its tail fin rays. It also lacks the narrow tail base that most other fishes have, giving the rear of its body a distinctly rounded, blunt look.
The Spot-tail Anglerfish has a particularly unusual approach to raising young. Most tropical anglerfishes release their eggs to drift in open water, but this species does the opposite: the male carries the egg cluster attached to his skin.
He folds his dorsal, tail and anal fins over the eggs to shelter them while they develop. A single cluster can hold up to 650 eggs, each one fairly large at about 3 mm across.
The eggs are attached to the male by tiny thread-like loops, anchoring each one individually to his skin. This level of parental care is rare among marine fishes and sets this species apart from most of its relatives.
Because it is so well camouflaged and stays so still, the Spot-tail Anglerfish is easy to miss on a reef dive. Underwater photographers who know what to look for often find them by spotting the distinctive tail spots first.

Species Interaction

Spot-tail Anglerfish: Rarely Seen, Seldom Studied

Research & Rare Encounters
Ecosystem Role

The Spot-tail Anglerfish is a little-known shallow-water species with relatively limited scientific research. Encounters with divers and snorkellers are uncommon, so observations of its behaviour in the wild remain scarce. The species is also kept in marine aquariums, where its unusual behaviour can be observed more closely. Much of what we know still comes from collected specimens, museum records and captive observations.

Species
Sustainability

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Teleostei
Order: Lophiiformes
Family: Histiophrynidae
Genus: Lophiocharon
Species: Lophiocharon trisignatus

Conservation Status

The Spot-tail Anglerfish has not been assessed by the IUCN Red List, and it carries no listing under Australia’s EPBC Act. It is a rarely documented species from Australian waters, and no stock assessment or conservation evaluation has been conducted for it specifically.