Adult Antennarius maculatus develop warts over the face and body. Young individuals are smooth and highly variable in color and can be difficult to distinguish from young Antennarius pictus and A. commerson. One character that seems unique to A. maculatus is, except for a few small black individuals, the presence of a patch of color that might sometimes resemble a crust of algae that starts at a narrow point right behind the eye and widens posteriorly, forming a roughly triangular patch usually ending just in front of and above the pectoral fin base. We saw these at many sites in the Tulamben and Amed areas.
We see many more young ones than adults. It makes you wonder where they go when the grow up, if they in fact make to adulthood. For some time, most of these red-margined yellow and white ones and the orange-spotted black ones were considered to be young A. pictus but recent research has shown them to be A. maculatus instead. Another characteristic of young A. maculatus is reported to be the roughly triangular brownish patch behind the head with one of its points leading up to the posterior of the eye socket.
Close shot of the esca.
Created 20 March 2023
Updated 17 June 2025