Some kind of anglerfish?

Found in about 15 meters in a grassy area in Sabang Bay, Puerto Galera, Philippines

Hey there

My guess is it's a type of shrimp goby. I can't find an exact match.

It is a dragonet, probably the common dragonet (Callionymus enneactis), it would be much easier to tell the species if you had a photo of it with the dorsal fin open...

Luiz

When I read the thread I was thinking wow, you this person must have done quite a deep dive to find an angler fish. You can deffinitely rule out an angler fish, they are deep sea fish. Im thinking it loks like a species of Goby, but it has such good camoflauge its hard to tell. I'll look around. Nice find though.

It is not a goby, you can rule that out too. It is a dragonet (family Callionymidae), I am just not sure what species it is because the dorsal fin is closed.

Luiz

Your find resembles a photo that I took in Lembeh Straits in September, that I identified as a Fingered Dragonet , Callionymidae Dactylopus. I found several of these on the trip ranging in size from 1 inch ,to 6 inches, generally in depths of 5 to 15 meters.

This photo was taken of the larger one, found in less than 5 meters of water. It never stop moving it's mouth as it crawled this way and that across the bottom. Not very camera shy, but not very cooperative either.

Your find resembles a photo that I took in Lembeh Straits in September, that I identified as a Fingered Dragonet , Callionymidae Dactylopus. I found several of these on the trip ranging in size from 1 inch ,to 6 inches, generally in depths of 5 to 15 meters.

This photo was taken of the larger one, found in less than 5 meters of water. It never stop moving it's mouth as it crawled this way and that across the bottom. Not very camera shy, but not very cooperative either.

Here are few more photos of the fingered dragonette. I think you're right. Deffinitely not a goby like i first thought. Though some people classify gobies and dragonettes together. They aren't the same genus, but i've seen books that group them together.

http://www.starfish.ch/collection/dragonet.html

FYI, mnay people in Australia call, what we often call a frogfish, an anglerfish. They are not referring to the deep water species.