The Angler Fish

So the other night, my son asks me about this fish he saw in Finding Nemo. Normally I might not share such a tale, because it’s probably only memorable to our family – but the answers found from this innocent question were pretty impressive indeed.

You see, the alleged fish has a light on it’s head and huge fangs. I don’t know about you, but I’d never heard of such a beast. In fact, I thought it sounded like someone had been having a little fun in the animation room. I even made the mistake of mentioning that it might not be completely real!

You can imagine my surprise when I finally found a picture of the fish in question. That’s a freaky fish indeed, and it seems that very little imagination would be necessary to get this fellow looking like a scary fish!

So I looked around some more and found all sorts of information, including this little tidbit that seems to provide all the information you might need (sorry, link died). You see, apparently this vicious beast is the female of the species! And you thought human women were bad! Luckily they only live at depths of 1,600 to 10,000 feet!

The luminous organ on her head actually attracts her prey. She can vibrate the thing, too, presumably to attract prey if they’re blind. The worse part is that the male of the species lives only to bond himself to the body of the female and provide his seed so that the species may continue. He’s also a lot smaller and not quite as strange looking,

I even found a picture of a live one (or a recently live one – about halfway down the page). Strangely enough, this beast is not the ugliest creature in the ocean. No, that honor belongs to the Fangtooth, a fish so bizarre, that he actually has sheaths in his head for his teeth to slide into when his mouth closes (about one-third of the way down the page)!

And that’s not all – don’t skip the main creature feature, more creatures and still more creatures. Pages courtesy of the Norfanz Voyage web site.


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215 responses to “The Angler Fish”

  1. lillie Avatar
    lillie

    what is an anglerfish?

  2. teacup 3200 Avatar
    teacup 3200

    thx this really helped me with my report on the anglerfish

  3. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Here is a video from our scientific expedition of a real anglerfish!

  4. Rozle Avatar
    Rozle

    Wow i’m doing a project too i did not know that the females were the big strange ones and the males are the little small tadpole like creature. wow suppose human women where like that i would be afraid….Very afraid, ” why did you come back so late dear, uh”….squashed like a bug. I’m just glad its the way it is and not also like the black widow spider, ” eat up children your father taste good, lets dig in”…..Creepy o.0

  5. vince lindley Avatar
    vince lindley

    Hello! I was wondering if you could have one as a pet they are very facinating and awesome. I can get the suplies and what is need but I cannot find one for sale.