Description

Want to see an ugly fish? Ok, here is the Striated Frog Fish, white as a ghost with a face only a mother could love. Look at that big ugly nose and gigantic oversized head, these fish really do ake me laugh when I find them, sitting in the black sands of long gone volcanic eruptions.

I titled this photo, ‘My Camouflage Really Sucks”, in this shot, it’s true, you would think that these critters would be an easy spot right? Life is never really that simple, these Frog Fish have this extreme white coloration to blend in with the thousands of Sea Urchin carcasses that litter the sandy bottom. The Urchin body after it dies, loses all it’s spikes, fish & bacteria eat and clean the urchin’s insides, leaving only a bleached white shell like structure. So as you dive over those areas you have to inspect almost every single white shell to see if it’s a Urchin husk, or one of these White Striated Froggies.

Thankfully in Dumaguete, Philippines, they were fairly common, especially as stated on black volcanic sandy sites. Since there was literally nothing else around, for framing a background, I tried to use the sand, twigs and leaves that he was sitting in, to provide so depth of field to the image, while contrasting just how white he is against a blackened background, enjoy!