Will a frogfish actually eat another frogfish?

[Mr_Knightley]

I have been doing some thinking on this, and I realize I have never actually seen pictures or heard reliable stories about frogs eating each other. It's generally assumed that they'll eat anything they can fit in their mouths, but I'm really struggling to find evidence that they commit cannibalism. On the contrary, I'm finding many images of various frogfish sitting together, often touching or at least within striking distance, and none of these images suggest that one eventually ate the other.
So if anyone has any direct evidence, please share it! I currently have one red frog and am planning to get another soon. I do not plan to put them together, but I was very curious to see if there's any direct evidential support for the myth of cannibalism.

Painted Frogfish Culture - Fish Culture Research

Frogfish larvae were raised on ciliates, copepods, rotifers and artemia. The larval duration was 80 days. First record of frogfish larval culture.

www.frankbaensch.com

 

[KrisReef]

Not Frogfish, but baby yellowfin tuna are eat each other. It's a size thing, if one gets about a third larger than it's cousin it will swallow them. Little yellowfin get eaten and the slightly bigger fish swims with the preys caudal fin sticking out of its mouth because it has to digest it before it can fully swallow it.

Yellowfin are fast growing, frogfish I think are much slower, but if one gets hungry I wouldn't be surprised if it ate a slightly smaller frogfish.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

For clarity, there is one frogfish species that is known to be a cannibal: Histrio Histrio, the sargassum frogfish. I am mostly speaking about the antennarius/antennatus species.

 

[GARRIGA]

I once considered keeping a 60 cube with frogfish but just assumed they'd likely eat each other if size disparity large enough yet recall seeing how some have spawned. Not sure if in a community setting or by introducing at certain times. Would be neat to see a tank full of these dwarf predators.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I've been wondering about this myself for a while now.

I know stomach content analyses of wild frogfish has shown evidence supporting the idea of cannibalism, but in our tanks I haven't been able to find evidence of it happening - it leads me to wondering if the wild frogfish were either on the verge of starvation, or if they happened to eat another fish that recently consumed a different frogfish (either whole or in part).

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Here's a development. This is still inter-species predation, and the size discrepancy is huge, so who knows if this is a common occurrence.

 

[Reefering1]

Here's a development. This is still inter-species predation, and the size discrepancy is huge, so who knows if this is a common occurrence.

The orange one looks soooo betrayed