Black Angler

About this species

Commerson's frogfish or the giant frogfish, Antennarius commerson, is a species of euryhaline ray-finned fish belonging to the family Antennariidae, the frogfishes. This fish is found in the Indo-Pacific region.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Commerson's frogfish”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 201 records
February: 117 records
March: 153 records
April: 227 records
May: 128 records
June: 112 records
July: 135 records
August: 106 records
September: 98 records
October: 107 records
November: 143 records
December: 130 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 15–70 m · Deepest record: 360 m

0–10 m: 1 records
10–20 m: 2 records
20–30 m: 6 records
30–40 m: 1 records
40–50 m: 1 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 7 records
70–80 m: 2 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–29 °C

18–20 °C: 1 records
20–22 °C: 3 records
22–24 °C: 7 records
24–26 °C: 14 records
26–28 °C: 14 records
28–30 °C: 14 records

Photos

(c) cello caruso-turiello, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Borja Fierro-Leva, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Robin White, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Black Angler, Commerson's Frogfish, Giant Anglerfish, Giant Frogfish

Names in 1 more languages

Japanese: オオモンカエルアンコウ

Other scientific names: Antennarius bivertex, Antennarius caudimaculatus, Antennarius commersoni, Antennarius commersonii, Antennarius goramensis, Antennarius lateralis, Antennarius lutescens, Antennarius moluccensis, Antennarius rubrofuscus, Chironectes caudimaculatus, Chironectes commersonii, Chironectes rubrofuscus, Lophie commerson, Lophiocharon goramensis, Lophius commerson, Lophius commersonii

Similar species

Big-spot Angler
Abantennarius nummifer

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
219 open-data records from 1804 to 2024.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.