The Deep Sea Anglerfish are found in waters across the world, from subarctic to subantarctic waters, excluding the Mediterranean sea. While you can find them in most bodies of water, they are still naturally rare, and there is still much research needed to understand these fish. One thing we do know is that anglerfish look like no other animal. Their appearances have inspired some colorful names, including the spherical frogfish, the warty anglers, and the flattened goosefish. There are many surprising features in the anglerfish’s appearance, including their humpback shape, their long and sharp teeth, their large mouths, and their dorsal fin resembling a fishing rod. The fin is the feature they are named after. You can find deep sea anglerfish from 1,500 to 2,500 meters below surface level, and it’s pitch black down there. Not many other creatures dwell at that level, so these fish often drift, partially because they’re feeble swimmers. They also have limb-like pectoral fins, which in some species have been used for walking on the ocean floor.
Hunting
Angelfish eat primarily other fish. They eat shrimplike creatures, squid, worms, and lanternfish. These fish attract prey through their fleshy bait like esca filled with bioluminescent bacteria. It usually flashes blue, but it can glow from yellow to purple, depending on the species. The fish move their lights back and forth to imitate possible living prey. When the fish gets close enough to the fish, it opens its mouth and uses teeth at the bottom of its mouth to move the prey to its belly. Most of their food is smaller than them, but they also have features to capture larger prey. This ability is needed because they’ll possibly have to go months without another meal. Prey is few and far between. To help catch food, the angelfish have teeth to pierce the fish and then cage the fish in its mouth. Its jaw can extend (its already large mouth), and its stomach can expand to help swallow that large prey as well.
Gender and Reproduction
However, this ambush style of living is only done by the female. Angelfish exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism. This term means the females are big, and the males are puny. The females, in some species, can grow up to around 1.2 meters, and the males grow to around 3 centimeters. Immediately after hatching, the males try to find a mate. Once they do, they attach their mouth tissue to the bottom of a female, fusing them for life (in some species). The male will not find food, and instead, he will count on the female for nourishment and feed on her blood. In exchange, the female has a sperm factory for easy fertilization. In species where the male doesn’t stay on the female forever, they will attach briefly, and the female will shoot down her egg, and then the male will release some sperm to fertilize those eggs.
