3rd Place Compact Behavior

Willy Irawan

"Mating Hairy Frogfish"

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The Story: I was off duty on that night dive means that i can bring my camera. We found the Hairy frogfish a couple of days before (I was literally screaming when I found it) after 3 years of looking in the area its suddenly there on one of our fav. dive site, mucky mosque. There’re some of the guests that exciting to see the hairy on the night dive so i wait patiently for my turn as my guests took photos with my colleagues. Once they’re done i approach these two and took my time, i watch these two following each other and i took photos of each of them with my +5 subsee until they were really close to each other. I took off my subsee so i can took pictures of them in one frame. Then out of nowhere the female start to convulsion, the male too, i was shocked, i knew something about to happen i look up to my guests try to call them but they’re already move along and too far, next thing i knew the male bit the belly and pushed the female and they launched into mid water, i saw something that i never saw before they were mating mid water, it was amazing. It only happened for just couple of seconds. At the beginning i pushed my video button but it was too dark since i only use one video light as my focus light and torch at the same time so i quickly turn it off and just start taking photos, i manage to take 3 photos and this photo that i submitted is one of it. To see and capture the mating ritual of the hairy frogfish is very rare and very lucky and I really blessed to have witness it.

Location:  Mucky Mosque - Alor, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia

Equipment Used:  Sony RX100 V Camera, Isotta RX100 V Housing, Dual Inon Z-330 Strobes

Camera Settings: 1/160 sec, F4.5, ISO 100

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