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Identification Key Frogfishes

Red Sea

All frogfish species listed here are living in the Red Seaand are not striped.
For striped frogfishes living in the Red Sea click here.
For a overwiew of all frogfishes from this area click here.

Size and frequency

These frogfishes are common in the Red Sea and larger than 10cm:

Antennarius commerson and Antennarius pictus are the frogfishes most commenly found in the Red Sea. They like to sit on exposed areas and are quite large. Unfortunately they both belong to the so called Pictus-group and it is quite difficult to distinguish them. Means of identification for frogfishes of the Antennarius pictus group.

Antennarius commerson (Giant frogfish)

		Information 30cm

Antennarius pictus (Painted frogfish)

		Information 10-16cm

These frogfishes are common in the Red Sea and are smaller than 10cm:

Abantennarius coccineus and Abantennarius nummifer belong to the genus Abantennarius (formerly Antennatus) and are difficult to distinguish from each other. Here some characteristics that might help with an identification:

Abantennarius coccineus - Lacks distinct tail base (dorsal and anal fins end at base of tail fin)
Abantennarius nummifer - has a large darkly pigmented basidorsal spot. The lure can have different shapes, but is mostly small and most of the time round but sometimes with filaments and dark swellings.

Abantennarius coccineus (Freckled frogfish)

		Information 9-13cm

Abantennarius nummifer (Spotfin frogfish)

		Information 10cm

These frogfishes are uncommon in the Red Sea:

		Information 1.5-2cm

Abantennarius rosaceus has a long 2nd spine with small bushes. Only a single sighting of this species in the Red Sea!

Abantennarius rosaceus (Rosy frogfish)

		Information 4cm

This identification key is only for species of the subfamily Antennariinae (frogfishes, family Antennariidae, suborder Antennarioidei) which are frogfishes living in tropical and Subtropical waters.
Please take note, that this is a simplified identification key. Ichthyologists use tables with the number of dorsal, anal and pectoral rays, the length of the illicium and other distinguishing characteristics for means of identification.