Frogfish can be very difficult to ID. They are highly variable in colour and size. One of the easiest ways is by the shape of their lures.
Now this frogfish is rather difficult to ID. It’s on a black sand dive site, one where we usually find Hairy Frogfish, which are a variety of the Striated Frogfish. As first glance this one seems to be a non-hairy Hairy Frogfish, and I think many divers would call it that.
However Hairy Frogfish have a very distinctive worm-like lure and this frogfish’s lure is definitely not worm-like. So I think it is a Hispid Frogfish.
I was very lucky to get a front on ‘yawn’. You can see right into his gut!!
UPDATE: I now think this is a Striated Frogfish that had it’s worm-like lure bitten off and it’s now regenerating.
