Deep sea fish with a lantern. Features of the angler fish, or is the monkfish so terrible? How do anglerfish reproduce?
A fish with a flashlight on its head or an angler fish.
Sexual dimorphism in deep-sea anglerfish is expressed in the fact that females are much larger than males and differ not only in body structure, but also in the way of existence. They have a huge mouth; sharp, slightly recurved teeth and an expanding stomach that allows them to digest prey larger than their own weight. The first ray of the dorsal fin in females, called the illium, is located above the mouth in the form of a “fishing rod”, at its end there is a luminous “bait” - an esca, which serves not only for hunting, but also as a guide that helps the male find the female.
Illicium in individuals of different species can have a different shape and size, and is also equipped with skin appendages. The glowing esca is a special gland with mucus that contains bioluminescent bacteria. Due to the expansion of the walls of the arteries that feed the gland with blood, the female Ceratioidea can cause the glow of bacteria that need an influx of oxygen, or, conversely, stop it by arbitrarily constricting the vessels. Glow in the form of a series of successive flashes for each type of these deep sea fish happens differently. The male angler fish has neither a "rod" nor a "bait".
The female Galateathauma axeli, which lives at a depth of about 3600 meters, has a luminous esca in its mouth, allowing it to hunt lying on the bottom. Adult female anglerfish feed on deep-sea fish, crustaceans and cephalopods; males prefer bristle-jawed and copepods. Gluttony of female anglerfish sometimes leads them to death. Capturing very big booty, she will no longer be able to release the victim due to the special structure of her teeth, therefore she dies with a fish stuck in her mouth.
Angler fish - reproduction and characteristics of sexual dimorphism.
Approaching the female, the male recognizes her, in which the structure of the esca, the color and frequency of her flashes play an important role. The male clings to the female with his sharp teeth from the side. Soon the male's body is reduced in such a way that it grows together with the female's tongue and lips, and his jaws, teeth, eyes and even intestines are reduced so much that he turns into her appendage that produces sperm. Up to three males can be on one female at the same time. Such a male feeds on the substances contained in the female's blood, since their blood vessels also grow together.
Once attached, the male completely loses independence, which is important biological significance for deep-sea fish and is associated with the difficulty of finding each other by sexually mature individuals, as well as with the limited amount of food at great depths. Despite the fact that at a depth of two to three thousand meters there are practically no seasonal changes, the angler fish breeds in the spring and summer. Spawning occurs at a fairly large depth, where females spawn from one to four million small eggs, the diameter of which is not more than 0.5-0.7 millimeters. Gradually, the caviar rises up.
The larvae appear in the surface layer at a depth of thirty to two hundred meters. The length of the Ceratioidea larva, on average, is two to three millimeters. They feed on copepods and chaetognaths. By the beginning of the transition to a different form and the acquisition of a new appearance, the juveniles manage to descend to a depth of more than a thousand meters. At the level of 1500-2000 meters there are anglers who have already reached puberty and have undergone metamorphosis. Such vertical migration of anglerfish has importance, because in the near-surface warm layer, sedentary larvae can fully feed and accumulate nutrients for the upcoming metamorphosis.
How a monkfish gets married February 28th, 2015
Sea devils are a detachment of anglerfish. They live at great depths, can withstand enormous pressure, and have an extremely unattractive appearance.
But you knew, for example, how anglers reproduce. In order for the fertilization of eggs to occur, two different fish- the male and female anglerfish must grow together into one organism.
When the male anglerfish finds a suitable mate, he bites into the female's stomach and tightly clings to her. Over time, two fish merge into a single creature with common skin, common blood vessels, etc. At the same time, some organs atrophy in the male - eyes, fins, etc.
It is precisely because the sea devils live most of their lives in the form of such a monster creature that scientists at first could not find male anglerfish in nature - they only came across females. It turned out that the males (or rather, what was left of them) "hide" inside.
Let's learn more about this fish...
Photo 2. 
Are there many people in Russia who can boast that they ate the devil? Apparently there are none at all. And for the average European, this pleasure is quite accessible. The fact is that angler albeit ugly, but delicious fish. It also lives off our shores, including in the Barents and even the Black Seas, but here no one specifically catches it.
Angler, or European anglerfish(Lophius piscatorius), is a large fish up to one and a half meters long, of which two-thirds falls on the head, and weighs up to 20 kilograms. The mouth is outrageously large and studded with a palisade of sharp teeth. Bare skin with a fringe of leathery lobes gives the fish an extremely disgusting appearance. On the head is a fishing rod - the first ray of the dorsal fin shifted forward, from which an appetizing "bait" hangs - a small leathery bulb. For days on end, the devil lies motionless at the bottom and patiently waits for some fish to be tempted by its bait. Then, without delay, it opens its mouth and swallows the prey.
Photo 3. 
European angler belongs to the anglerfish family. They live at a depth of 50-200 meters and are considered fairly common inhabitants of coastal waters. Only recently it became known that their close relatives live in the depths of the ocean. They called them deep sea anglers. About 120 species are now known. These amazing creatures are small or very small fish. Females are from 5-10 to 20-40 centimeters long, only the circulation grows up to a meter, and males are dwarfs 14-22 millimeters in size.
The rod is only in females. Often this tackle is clearly divided into a rod, a fishing line and a luminous bait suspended at its end. For each type of anglerfish, the bait has a shape and size peculiar only to these fish, and emits light rays of a strictly defined color. The bait is a sac filled with mucus in which luminous bacteria live. Bacteria need oxygen to emit light. When the angler has lunch and is busy digesting food, he no longer needs light. It can draw attention to the angler large predator. Then the devil pinches the blood vessels of the fishing line and temporarily extinguishes his flashlight.
Photo 4. 
The rod above the fish's head points up and forward, and the bait dangles at the very mouth. It is here that gullible game is lured. Gigantaxis have a rod with a line 4 times longer than the fish itself. This allows you to throw the bait far and, teasing the prey, lure it to the mouth that is always ready to gape. Each type of bait attracts a very specific game. This is confirmed by the fact that in the stomachs of some anglerfish there are constantly such fish that are rarely caught in deep-sea trawls and are considered very rare.
Everything is unusual in deep-sea anglerfish, especially reproduction. Males and females are so different from each other that they used to be considered different types of fish. When the male becomes an adult, he goes in search of a female. The suitors big eyes and an impressive olfactory organ, helping to detect the female. For a tiny fish, finding a bride is a difficult task. Nobody knows how much time they spend on it. It is not surprising that, having found a bride, the male immediately sinks his teeth into her.
Soon, the lips and tongue of the male adhere to the body of the wife, and she takes her husband to be completely dependent. Through the vessels that have grown into his body, the female supplies him with everything he needs. The jaws, intestines and eyes of the male are no longer needed, and they atrophy. In the body of the male, only the heart and gills continue to work, helping to supply oxygen to his body, and even the testes. During breeding, the female spawns, and the male regularly waters it with milk.
Spawning takes place at great depths, but the eggs are lighter than water and float to its surface. This is where the larvae hatch. They feed heavily, grow rapidly and gradually sink until they return to their homeland in their favorite depths.
Photo 6. 
Some species of deep-sea anglerfish are considered edible. They are caught in the USA, Africa and East Asia. Especially popular in North America meat from the tail of the anglerfish, which is called Monkfish (monk fish) or Goosefish (goose fish). It tastes like lobster meat. In Japan and Korea, goose fish liver is a delicacy.
The white, dense, boneless and extremely tender meat of this fish can do honor to anyone. festive table. It is suitable both for frying in pieces and open in the shape of a butterfly, or for grilling, diced and put on skewers, and for boiling and stewing. The monkfish is especially popular in France, where the meat of its tail is prepared in many ways, for example with boiled vegetables, and the head, if one can get it, is used for soup.
Photo 7. 
Why monkfish are called "tail fish"
With the head of a monster, the fishermen crack down quickly. Almost one edible tail remains from the fish, which goes on sale peeled from the skin. Therefore, the monkfish is often called the "tail" fish, whose white, dense, boneless and extremely tender meat can do honor to any festive table. Being a master of disguise, the monkfish, with its dark, often spotted, upper body, is almost invisible against the background of the bottom of shallow coastal waters, among stones, pebbles and fucus. There he usually likes to lie, watching for prey. On both sides of the head, along the edge of the jaw and lips, fringed shreds of skin hang down, moving in the water like algae. On the sides of the body there are wide fins, and on the back there are thin spines with a spherical thickening at the end, which lure the victim. This sea monster can reach 2 m with a weight of 30-40 kg. Smaller specimens usually go on sale. But even this size monkfish can swallow enough big fish. They say that in the belly of one anglerfish, 65 cm long, they found a young cod 58 cm long. The monkfish is found in many seas, mainly in the Atlantic and in the North Sea, up to Iceland.
Photo 8. 
And the monkfish is also called the "frog" - because he knows how to jump
Sometimes, during the hunt, the anglerfish moves very unusually: it jumps along the bottom, pushing off with its pectoral fins. For this, they called him "the frog."
Photo 9. 
In one type of monkfish, the "rod" is drawn into a special channel on the back. The glow of the bubble fish regulates the narrowing or expansion of the walls of the arteries. And in the benthic galatetauma, the “fishing rod” is generally located in the mouth. Another species uses glowing teeth as bait.
For hunting, it is enough for the angler to swim or rest quietly on the sand, from time to time opening his mouth and swallowing too curious fish. She has no chance to escape: the mouth of the monkfish sucks in water along with everything that swims nearby: mollusks, crustaceans, sometimes even stingrays and sharks. A very hungry angler may catch a waterfowl. However, in this case, he often chokes on feathers and dies.
Photo 10. 
Monkfish are not able to compare the size of their prey with the feeling of hunger. Ichthyologists have repeatedly observed cases when a predator caught and bitten a large fish, much larger than himself, but could not let go because of the peculiarities of the structure of the teeth.
Anglerfish breed as unusually as they hunt. Males do not have “rods” at all, and they themselves are quite tiny. While females often reach two meters in length, males rarely exceed 5 millimeters. Each female carries several males: they dig into her, grow together and gradually turn into genitals.
Hungry sea devils are dangerous for scuba divers. They have very poor eyesight, which is compensated by courage and gluttony, so it is better to stay as far away from a hungry anglerfish as possible.
Photo 11. 
But where does such a big name come from? According to one version, this fish got it for its extravagant appearance, to put it mildly, even against the general bright and diverse background of the inhabitants. sea depths. A flat body, a huge ugly head with a huge mouth, in some species making up two thirds of the total length, crowned with a palisade of sharp teeth, evokes a feeling of horror. These teeth are able to turn prey into a mess of torn tissues and bones.
Photo 12. 
In general, the monkfish is incredibly voracious and therefore boldly rushes even at a seemingly obviously unattainable goal. And in "hungry" moments suffering almost total absence of sight, a large anglerfish rises into the upper water column from the depths and at such moments it is able to attack scuba divers.
You can meet such an inhabitant of the deep sea just at the end of summer, after an exhausting hungry spawning, the "devils" go to shallow water, where they intensively eat off until autumn, after which they go to wintering at great depths.
However, compared to sharks, barracudas and octopuses, real monkfish or anglers do not pose an immediate danger to humans. Be that as it may, their terrible teeth are capable of disfiguring the hand of a careless fisherman for life. However, the monkfish does much more damage not to a person, but to others. commercial species fish. So, there are legends among fishermen that, having got into a fishing net, during his stay there, he ate the fish that got there.
Photo 13. 
Photo 14. 
Photo 15. 
Photo 16. 
Photo 17. 
Photo 18. 
Photo 19. 
Photo 20. 
Angler - predatory fish detachment of anglerfishes. This species received the name "monkfish" because of its very unattractive appearance. The fish is edible. The meat is white, dense, without bones. Especially popular "monkfish" in France.
Whatever they call them - both sea devils and sea scorpions, and anglerfish, and European anglerfish. However, there are also several varieties of this miracle fish. And in terms of originality of appearance, each of the species is not inferior to each other. People have never seen devils, but the sea monsters that have risen from the depths resemble creatures from the underworld.
It is worth saying that in the aquatic fauna there is another monkfish - a mollusk, but now we will talk about a representative of ray-finned fish.
Actually, it's just sea fish- a predatory fish with an amazing, unlike anything appearance. These fish belong to the ray-finned fish, to the anglerfish order, to the anglerfish family, to the anglerfish genus. Now in the water depths of the earth there are two varieties of monkfish.
Appearance
At the first glance at this creature, a remarkable organ, the “fishing rod”, immediately catches the eye. The modified fin really resembles a fishing rod with a luminous float. An ugly freak, sometimes reaching up to two meters in length and 30-40 kilograms, he can regulate the glow of his float. But there is nothing supernatural in this. In fact, the float is a kind of skin formation, in the folds of which amazing bacteria live. In the presence of oxygen, which they draw from the anglerfish's blood, they glow. But if the monkfish just had lunch and went to take a nap, glowing flashlight he does not need it, and he blocks the access of blood to the fishing fin, and the float fades before the start of a new hunt.
Whole appearance monkfish betrays in him an inhabitant of the deep sea. An elongated body, with an unnaturally large head, everything is covered with some kind of growths, remotely resembling either algae, or tree bark, or some kind of knots and snags.
The body length of the monkfish is about 2 meters, while the animal weighs almost 20 kilograms. The body has a slightly flattened shape. In general, the anglerfish is not a very pleasant-looking fish. It is all covered with some kind of leathery outgrowths that look similar to snags and algae. The head is disproportionately large, huge and unpleasant in monkfish and mouth.
Habitat
The habitat of this fish is considered Atlantic Ocean. The angler is found off the coast of Europe, off the coast of Iceland. In addition, monkfish have been found in the waters Baltic Sea, Black Sea, North Sea and Barents Sea.
The depth at which these fish usually live is from 50 to 200 meters. Most often they are found at the very bottom, because there is nothing more pleasant for a monkfish than just lying quietly on the sand or silt. But it is only at first glance that the angler is idle. In fact, this is one of the ways to hunt. The animal freezes, waiting for its prey. And when she swims by, she grabs her and eats her.
Nutrition
The main food for these fish is other, usually smaller, fish. The monkfish menu consists of katrans, atherins, Kalkans, stingrays and others.
In general, the monkfish is incredibly voracious and therefore boldly rushes even at a seemingly obviously unattainable goal. And in “hungry” moments, a large anglerfish suffering from an almost complete lack of vision rises to the upper water column from the depths and at such moments it is able to attack scuba divers. You can meet such an inhabitant of the deep sea just at the end of summer, after an exhausting hungry spawning, the "devils" go to shallow water, where they intensively eat off until autumn, after which they go to wintering at great depths.
However, compared to sharks, barracudas and octopuses, real monkfish or anglers do not pose an immediate danger to humans. Be that as it may, their terrible teeth are capable of disfiguring the hand of a careless fisherman for life. However, the monkfish does much more damage not to humans, but to other commercial fish species. So, there are legends among fishermen that, having got into a fishing net, during his stay there, he ate the fish that got there.
reproduction
The male and female anglerfish are so different in appearance and size that until some time experts attributed them to different classes. Monkfish breeding is as special as their appearance and way of hunting.
Male anglerfish in size at times smaller female. To fertilize the eggs, he needs to find his chosen one and not lose sight of her. To do this, the males simply bite into the body of the female. The structure of the teeth does not allow them to free themselves, and they do not want to.
Over time, the female and male grow together, forming a single organism with a common body. Part of the organs and systems of the "husband" atrophies. He no longer needs eyes, fins, stomach. Nutrients come through the blood vessels from the body of the "wife". It remains only for the male to fertilize the eggs at the right time.
They are swept out by the female usually in the spring. The fecundity of the sea anglerfish is quite high. On average, the female spawns up to 1 million eggs. This occurs at a depth, looks like a long (up to 10 m) and wide (up to 0.5 m) ribbon. The female can carry several “husbands” on her body so that they fertilize a large number of eggs at the right time.
It should be noted that the female monkfish can simultaneously lay a clutch, which has about three million eggs. After some time, the eggs are released and they themselves travel in sea waters. Turning into larvae, they live closer to the surface of the water for up to four months, and only reaching a length of 6-8 cm, they sink to the bottom.
Monkfish are not able to compare the feeling of hunger with the size of the prey. There is evidence of anglers catching fish larger than themselves but unable to release them due to the structure of their teeth. It happens that a monkfish catches a waterfowl and chokes on feathers, which leads to his death.
Monkfish in cooking
Monkfish is suitable both for frying in pieces, and for frying in layers on a grill on a grill, or diced and put on skewers on a grill. Monkfish are boiled and stewed. The fish is especially popular in France, where the meat of its tail is prepared in many ways, for example with blackcurrant jam or sweet yam, and the head of the devil is used for a rich, fatty, spicy soup.
Monkfish meat is highly valued in Japan. Not only meat is eaten, but also liver, fins, skin and stomach.
Chinese monkfish prefer to cook in a wok. The fillet is fried in oil with rice vinegar and soy sauce, sprinkled with ginger and chili. Then the wok is removed from the fire, the fish is covered with coriander and green onion, mixed, served with rice. Everyone who has tried this dish finds it slightly smoky. All this is a game of spices and features of the wok. The fish is tender and very juicy thanks to the quick frying.
In America, monkfish are cooked mainly on the grill. The fish is cut into pieces along with the skin and vertebral bone. Marinate with salt, olive oil and rosemary. The oil coats the fish pieces and prevents them from drying out. Served monkfish with grilled vegetables, seasoned lemon juice and olive oil.
In the same America, they cook carrot puree with monkfish fillet meatballs. Carrots are boiled until soft, then stewed in heavy cream, chopped with the addition of coriander and salt. Monkfish fillets are crushed, mixed with salt and spices, and molded into meatballs the size of Walnut, steam them. Puree is served in deep bowls, with a dozen meatballs in each and sprinkled with fresh herbs.
In Korea they make monkfish National dish Khe and cook a sweet-spicy soup, to which they add a lot of vegetables and fried monkfish (fillet) in batter. Monkfish meat, seasoned with hot spices, is put in rice dough (pancakes) and fried in in large numbers oils. Serving fish with soy sauce.
In gourmet restaurants in a number of countries, you can find dishes where monkfish fish is presented in the following form. The fish is fried and served, dousing with sweet and sour sauce, stewed fish is served with lemon and lemon zest, as well as stewed and served with parsley or spinach sauce with cheese. Fish is fried with chili peppers, smoked paprika and ginger, stewed in white wine, cream sauce, milk, baked with tomatoes, fried, strung on rosemary sprigs.
Monkfish are baked in the form of a roll. The fillet is laid out in a layer on a film, the filling is placed on top, for example, broccoli, rolled up. The ends of the film are tied, the roll in this form is lowered into water and the fish is boiled for 10 minutes at a temperature not exceeding 86`C. With this method, the fillet remains soft and juicy, but keeps its shape perfectly. Served with fish cream sauce and fried potato medallions.
In the free sale, the monkfish is not often, because. already mentioned above, the fish is under state protection and its catch is limited. Monkfish in non-frozen form can be found in large hypermarkets at a very high price in a certain season or in the market from private sellers (this is in Europe and America). The rest of the time, if they sell fish, it is frozen, but its price is just as high - 20 euros per 1 kg.
The anglerfish belongs to the suborder Ceratioidei, the order Lophiiformes, which includes more than 100 species. It lives in the ocean column at depths from 1.5 to 3 km. Its body is spherical, flattened on the sides. The head is huge, occupying more than half of the total length. The mouth is awesome, with long sharp
teeth. The bare skin is dark in color, spines and plaques are characteristic only for some species. The "fishing rod", which gave the name to the detachment, is the modified first ray of the fin located on the back. It is found only in females.
There was an opinion that angler fish has ugly forms with bulging eyes. The photo shows her after lifting from the depths. In her typical environment, she looks completely different. And we are evaluating the consequences of a huge pressure difference (250 atmospheres) in the water column and on the surface.
The deep-sea anglerfish is an amazing creature. Females are hundreds of times larger than males. Females that were caught and removed from sea water, turned out to be in the range from 5 to 100 cm in length, and males - from 1.6 to 5 cm. This is one of the manifestations. The second is illitium, in common people - the fishing rod of females. It is worth noting that it ends with a luminous due to
bioluminescent bacteria "bait". An angler fish is able to “turn it on and off” by feeding a kind of gland with blood. The length of the illition different types different. For some, it can lengthen and shorten, luring the victim directly into the hunter's mouth.
The nutrition of these fish is also amazing. Females eat crustaceans, occasionally molluscs. Their stomach can increase in size at times. There are cases when they swallowed victims much larger than themselves. Such greed led to death, because. the female was choking on her "lunch", but she could not let it out of herself, her long teeth were holding back. Males, given their small size, are also available with chaetognaths.
The anglerfish breeds in spring and summer. Females spawn small eggs, males fertilize them. From a depth, the eggs float to the near-surface layer (up to 200 m), where there is more opportunity to feed. This is where the larvae come in. By the time of metamorphosis, the grown juveniles descend to a depth of 1 km. After the transformation, the angler fish will go to even greater depths, where it will reach puberty and live its characteristic life.
Fish angler - one of the manifestations of diversity natural world. It is no coincidence that a wonderful way of existence that seems to us has been developed over the centuries. Much still remains unknown. Perhaps someday an explanation will be found.
Today we are talking about anglerfish. And all because there was news that it was first filmed in natural environment habitat at a depth of 600 meters with the help of special underwater equipment!
The anglerfish is a completely unusual detachment of fish.
They live deep, deep in the water and look pretty unsympathetic. They have a very large flattened head, and the upper jaw can protrude! But the most interesting thing is how the anglerfish hunts. There is a bait on his back - once one feather from his dorsal fin separated from the others and turned into a "fishing rod", at the end of which a small "flashlight" formed.
In fact, it is such a gland, similar to a transparent bag, inside of which there are bacteria. They may or may not glow, depending on the anglerfish itself, which can control bacteria by dilating or constricting blood vessels. If the vessels expand, more oxygen enters the "flashlight", it shines brightly, and if they narrow, then its light disappears. And this "flashlight" in complete darkness lures prey to the anglerfish. As soon as a fish or some other animal approaches the "flashlight", the angler opens its mouth and sucks in the fish with lightning speed.
Anglerfish have the fastest throw of any animal! Here there is slow motion and you can see how quickly he eats what he managed to lure - once and ready.
And his stomach can also stretch so that a fish the size of an anglerfish can fit inside it.
All of these photographs show a female anglerfish, only she has a "rod". But this photo is interesting in that both the female and the male are immediately visible on it. There he is - that little fish on the right.
And here is the same video on which he was first filmed in his own habitat. The angler here is small, or rather small - 9 cm.
I wonder if kids will notice a curious detail with this fish?
Look, he lost a tooth! In the video they joke that it is not clear whether a new one will grow or not, but one thing is clear that there are no tooth fairies in the ocean!
Search
We may notify you of new articles,