If you didn’t already think that marine life had the weirdest strategies for ecological survival already, this picture of a lady frogfish carrying her eggs ought to reinforce that notion. We’ve long known that some frogfish of the family Antennariidae carry their spawn on their sides but seeing a picture of this fact really drives the point home much more viscerally.
As with so many fascinating yet often overlooked details of the natural underwater marine world, the diligent fish people at Blenny Watcher spotted this female Lophhiocharon sp. near Batanta Indonesia. Looking much more like the special effects of a science fiction alien movie, the sight of this female dutifully carrying her eggs literally on her side fits the definition of unbelievable. As you can see in the photo and the video, the dorsal fin can partially cover the eggs and probably also fan them to keep them well oxygenated and free from debris. With frogfish being so well camouflaged it makes sense that they would carry eggs on their body where they can keep an eye on them.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=PZm0Js6a2Go[/youtube]
