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.
Comments
215 responses to “The Angler Fish”
Sorry I didn’t read all of the comments…too many and it has been going on for too long so I don’t know if anyone else in the past 2 yrs knew to tell any of you, but the DVD for Finding Nemo has(on disc 2) a special features section that names every fish in the movie. So you can see for yourself if you still have doubts about whether or not it is indeed an angler fish. Check it out for yourself, it was pretty interesting.
Interesting points. I am no expert, but it sounds like they combined the Angler and Viper characteristics.. My question is, does the Angler fish light up on the side like the one in the movie or is that just something the Vipers do only? I am blown away by that animation in “Finding Nemo” by the way…WOW! Wish I knew how to do that!
This site helped me with my report thanx, but you need more and better info……
Please reply
Hi, I know it’s an angler fish because it has that fishing rod and vipers don’t. And I have the moive Finding Nemo, and I did research on Vipers and Anglers it said Vipers are a foot and Anglers are 1.2 (4 feet). That Angler on the movie looked like real anglers but it was a little bigger in length and size.
I was watching Finding Nemo with my son when we decided to find out if the angler fish was real. If you go to http://www.geocities.com/thesciencefiles/angler/fish.html it has a really good picture of the fish, and it looks just like the one in the movie.
HI, im in the middle of a project on the deep sea anglerfish for my university degree and stumbled across this site.
its one of the hardest iv done soley due to the fact that there is very little information and research performed on this animal. They are a very interesting order of species and a brilliant product of evolution. The illicium (light) on its head is a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that produce cold light through a reaction where a compound called luciferin is oxidised with and enzymed named luciferase. If anyone wants information on this creature e-mail as i have searched to the depths of this planet to find things about them.
Cool site. Thanks for all the information. I’m doing a project for Science and the information in this site helped me. Whoever wrote this, good job. Don’t mind the negative comments. If you think something is true, and have proof,stick with it until somebody really proves you wrong. If that happens then own up and ‘fess that you were wrong. Thanks a bunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God Bless
Rachael
i found this site really intersesing and inforative, i couldent believe the amount of people interseted in this disgusting fish! i was searching for it because i am recently having re-occuring dreams with the angler fish in it and if any one could explain why please do, thanx xx
uhh yea the thing are funky which is why when i reincarnate i want to be a (female) angler fish also the males are more like parasites really they never even have a digestive track and the rest of their body colapsed when they attach thmselves to the female.
THE ANGLERFISH IS AN UGLY FISK. LIVES IN DEPTHS OF 5,000 FT