Angler Fish Facts

As in the land, gang wars and blood hunts take place in the sea too and the anglerfish family is the ‘Corleone family’ among the sea hunter fishes. Anglerfishes are the members of the ‘Lophiformes’ order and they are named after their characteristic mode of predation. Some of them live in the deep sea and in open water while others play their dangerous games on the continental shelf. The depths of the Antarctic and Atlantic oceans are observed as the anglerfish habitat, putting up around 200 species of these creatures. They flourish in the lightless bottom of the sea. They are characterized by the enormous crescent shaped mouths filled with sharp teeth. Rare anglerfishes grow up to 3.3 feet height while most of them are smaller than a foot. Read on to know more about the facts about the cruising of angler fishes in the deep blue sea.

Type: Fish

Order: Lophiiformes

Suborder: Ceratioidei

Class: Osteichthyes

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Phylum: Chordata.

Scientific Name: Melanocetus johnsoni,

Diet: Carnivore

Size: 8 in (20 cm) up to 3.3 ft (1 m)

Weight: Up to 110 lbs (50 kg)

Color: Brown to dark gray or black

Group Name: School

Habitat: Found in a range of water depths, from 2 to 500m

Breeding: Spring to early summer

Interesting And Amazing information On Anglerfish

Anglerfish is named after its characteristic method of predation. According to ecology, predation can be defined as a biological interaction where a predator [an organism that hunts] feed on its prey. The act of predation ends up in the death of the prey in most cases and it may not be to the predator's benefit.
Female anglerfish bear a piece of dorsal spine, which have a projecting structure above its mouth. This dorsal spine is similar to a fishing pole and it contains a lucent flesh at its tip, which makes it a perfect and natural tempter for preys. This kind of predation of the fishes is considered as analogous to angling and thus the fish is called ‘anglerfish’. Anglerfishes are the mini gangsters of the ocean who can swallow a prey bigger than them because of their flexible body structure.
The male anglerfish, in contrast, is not really ‘macho’ and is not equipped with any such luring organ like the female one. It is also comparatively small to the female ones. The only purpose of the male anglerfish’s life is to find a female angler and mate with it.
The male anglerfish is a searcher in a sense because it needs a female anglerfish to keep itself alive. It is equipped with well-developed olfactory organs from the birth. These special organs help the male anglerfish to get the odors in the water. As the male fish attains the maturity, its digestive system begin to degenerate, which makes it hard for it to feed on its own. Thus, it is forced to find a female anglerfish in order to prevent its death.
Any fish which passes before the angler fish’s eyes can be its prey. Anglerfish’s diet is filled with various genres of fishes. They eat almost all kind of sea worms, batfish, clams, copepods, and marine snails. The predator fish eats even the fishes, which are almost double the size of it.
The fishes of the family ‘Lophiidae’ to which angler fish belongs, is a favorite among the people living in eastern north America, Africa, north western Europe and far east. The flavor of anglerfish is compared to lobster in taste and texture. In North America, anglerfish is widely used in cooking and it is considered as a ‘delicacy’ in Korea and Japan.

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