Shedd Aquarium Raises Baby Warty Frogfish

Chicago, Illinois —(Map)

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has successfully raised a baby warty frogfish from an egg. This is the first time anyone has done this. The aquarium says their work could help with raising other sea creatures in the future.

Warty frogfish are odd-shaped fish with little bumps all over their bodies, which is how they get their name. They’re spotted with different colored patches, and over time, these colors can change.

At the tip of the first fin on the back of these fish is a lure – a body part that looks a bit like a small fish. This is used to draw other fish in close, so the warty frogfish can eat them.

Warty frogfish are most commonly found in the area where the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean meet. But there are also two warty frogfish in an exhibit tank at the Shedd Aquarium.

Last September, the female warty frogfish at the Shedd laid tens of thousands of tiny eggs. The male in the tank fertilized the eggs. Workers at the aquarium moved these eggs to a special tank, hoping to raise them.

The Shedd’s workers had raised other fish from eggs before. But different fish require different conditions. And no one had ever raised warty frogfish in a tank before.

After a few days, thousands of the eggs hatched. The frogfish babies, called larvae, are weak and delicate. They look a little like tadpoles. The team knew that they couldn’t care for that many larvae. So they chose 500 of them to focus on, to give them the best chance of success.

Jenny Richards, who works at the Shedd, says raising the baby fish wasn’t easy. Normally, the larvae develop while floating in the open sea, which is very different from life in a small tank.

The aquarium team worked hard on the conditions in the tank. The water had to be the correct temperature. The light, and the way the water flowed needed to be just right. They also needed to make sure the larvae had the kind of food it needed to survive.

As the larvae grew, their bodies changed. Their muscles got stronger and their fins moved into new positions. Most of the larvae didn’t survive these difficult changes. This is normal for warty frogfish. In the wild, very few larvae survive either. That’s one reason the female lays so many eggs.

After about 90 days, a single larva survived to become a young frogfish. The aquarium workers named it “Domino”.

Domino, is about the size of a pea, but looks just like a tiny adult frogfish. It’s bright yellow with orange spots, and has a little lure for catching prey. It’s even learning to walk on the bottom of its tank, like adult frogfish do.

The aquarium says that the knowledge its workers gained from raising Domino will help them raise other sea creatures in the future. This could be more and more important as the oceans face challenges from climate change.