The Lusitanian toadfish (''Halobatrachus didactylus'') is a species of

toadfish {{short description, Common name used for fish Toadfish is the common name for a variety of species from several different families of fish, usually because of their toad-like appearance or calls using their swimbladder. File:OysterToadfish.jpeg, ...

found along the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

Coasts of western

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and western

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, from the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay ( ) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward ...

to Ghana, with an isolated and old northern record from the Norwegian side of the

Kattegat The Kattegat (; ; ) is a sea area bounded by the peninsula of Jutland in the west, the Danish straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the Swedish provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Scania in Swede ...

. This species grows to a length of . This species is of minor importance to local

commercial fisheries Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often p ...

. Locally, it is known as ''gripau'' ( Catalan), ''charroco'', ''encharroco'', ''xarroco'' ( Portuguese), and ''pez sapo'' (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

)). The fish is also known to make a variety of noises, such as whistles, grunts, croaks, and a boatwhistle that is used both to attract females and to deter intruding males. The Lusitanian toadfish is a sedentary fish which is found in substrates consisting of soft sand or mud and which often lies partially buried or conceals itself in rock crevices. They are solitary fish of shallow waters. It is a predator feeding on crustaceans, molluscs and smaller fish. It is an

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

species and after laying, the female leaves the eggs to be guarded by the male. It is found at depths of less than . The Lusitanian toadfish is of minor importance to fisheries, it is taken by artisanal fisheries and as

bycatch Bycatch (or by-catch), in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juve ...

. It is marketed fresh but also used for fishmeal and to make oil.

References

Batrachoididae Taxa named by Marcus Elieser Bloch Taxa named by Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider Fish described in 1801 {{Batrachoidiformes-stub