Texas Coastline Hosts Bizarre Cannibal Fish You’ve Never Heard Of

A creature with a name sounding more like a witch's brew ingredient than an actual fish has recently gone under the spotlight in Texas.

What is This Freaky Fish Found in Texas?

The sargassum frogfish has been stalking the coastlines of Texas with a taste for flesh of its own kind. This cannibalistic predator may be small, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in intensity and danger.

Also known by their genus name, Histrio histrio, the sargassum frogfish is an expert in camouflage, able to bob and weave through its native seaweed habitat with ease. Its small body can reach lengths up to nearly 8 inches, and this fish is typically spotted yellow or brown in appearance.

What Do Frogfish Look Like?

On top of that, these frogfishes can change their color on the fly to match their environment. They also have many spines and dark bands along their bodies which can sometimes make them easier to spot.

Once, when a sargassum frogfish was dissected, there were 16 young fish of the same family found in its stomach. They can propel themselves forward with great speed in short distances to catch prey. This is done by shooting water out of their gills for speed.

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Oh yeah, and frogfish can also open their mouths to many times their original size and can swallow prey even larger than their entire bodies.

It gets its name from the fact that it feeds on brown algae that floats in the ocean called sargassum. As this algae eventually loses buoyancy, it slowly sinks to the bottom of the depths, feeding smaller creatures along the way.

So, the next time you scoff at the toilet-water bat-dangle that'll soon attack our shorelines or whatever, just remember that the sillier the name, the weirder the fish.