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”
Hi again, I think the fish you’re asking about might be the coelacanth which is refered to as a ‘living fossil’.
I did a quick google search and this page looks like it has some good info:
http://www.dinofish.com
Ok – the exsistance of the Angler Fish was piqued by seeing my son’s Finding Nemo DVD. Where as I’m not so interested in whether or not the Angler Fish is correctly represented in the movie – hey its a movie, who cares about correct representation – I AM wondering if this is the fish that experts thought was extinct and recently found. If NOT does anyone have the correct name of the fish in question and may I have it please?
Thanks – temporary suspension of disbelief, its what movie makers hope for in their audiences for just a few hours. (source-film class at U of Montana)
This is my responce to the second reply: It wasn’t a viperfish. It WAS an angler fish. If you look VERY carefully, it has no lights in it’s mouth. Also, the angler fish’s mouth was closed as it approached. Viper fish keep their mouths open when they swim. They attract fish with their mouths. Their outer skin glows like the anglerfish, but they don’t have a lure. Plus, the viperfish’s eyes are further to the sides, while some species of anglerfish have eyes next to eachother like in Finding Nemo. If you look at a lot of stuff, you might find one with eyes like that. Try watching Blue Planet on discovery channel, they recenthy showed a deep-sea special one. Anyways, [fill in blank].
Hi everyone, I’m 21 (and I love the film too!) I’m currently studying a bit of aquatic biology and thought it might interest you to know that deep sea anglerfish can range in size from 10cm to up to 1m! http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/blueplanet/factfiles/fish/angler_fish.shtml“>This is a pretty good link for some basic info. There’s a short video on there too.
Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming….
THX, THIS SITE RULES!
THIS HELPED ME SO MUCH ON MY PROJECT!!!! THANKS A MILLION!
You all are insane….FINDING NEMO IS AWESOME!!!! : )
Actually there are four different types of Angler fish and ONLY the Deep Water Angler lives toward the bottom of the ocean. The others live rather close to the surface; no worries though because very few can survive in American waters. They are only found in thier true living grounds around the U.K. and other Eastern Hemisphere countries.
guys i think u can stop saying it’s a angler fish now. no one is een saying it’s a Viper fish any more. u’r point has been made over and over again. it’s in the DVD commentary for crying out loud. let it go, both of u. and the sadest part of all s that i now have been scked into this.
yeah, i have to do a report on the angler fish for school and this website wasn’t too helpful. what’s the point of it any way? i’ll keep looking for INFORMATION