They are benthic, shallow to deep-dwelling fish and live from ca. 20m to 100m deep, max. They prefer sandy bottoms, rocks and coral reefs. The most interesting aspect of the frogfish, apart from his pefect camouflage is the way he attracts his prey. The frogfish moves the lure in a special pattern.
Frogfish also employ a chemical attractant.
This is of importance to frogfish that forage at night like A. striatus . When feeding, the frogfish expand the oral cavity. They can actually catch a fish out of a school without the other fish noticing the disappearance. A frogfish will easily swallow prey that is larger than he is. Because the esca acts as a bait it is apparently highly susceptible to loss or damage by attacks or nibblings of potential prey as well as predators.