Psychedelic frogfish has no lure and it doesn’t swim

What do you get when you cross a human face with an anglerfish and a beach ball? You get a psychedelic frogfish with forward facing eyes that prefers to bounce around over swimming.  The freaky flat anglerfish we first told you about back in April is making a fresh splash in the news with new pictures, new videos and some bonafide genetic analysis. The new fish is now officially classified as Hystioprhyne psychedelica and genetic testing has confirmed that it is part of a rare subgroup of anglerfish. The Psychedelic frogfish is also unusual in that it prefers to use jet propulsion to get around over swimming with it’s entire body. If the fish is not seen hopping about it is usually crawling on the bottom slowly in a more typical frogfish manner. Be sure to check out the video of this fish in action, it’s as close as we’re likely to ever seeing one at all. All photos courtesy of David Hall/Sealifephotos.com and credit goes to Ted Pietsch, Aquatic Science Professor at Udub (University of Washington).

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