Monkfish: description, habitat and interesting facts. Monk angler fish with a repulsive appearance Flat prey anglerfish 7 letters

The anglerfish is the most extravagant-looking member of the Angler class. It lives at impressive depths due to its unique ability to withstand enormous pressure. We offer you to get to know this deep-sea inhabitant, which has amazing taste qualities, and learn some interesting facts about it.

Appearance

Let's get acquainted with the description of the monkfish - a marine fish that prefers deep crevices where sunlight never gets. The European anglerfish is a large fish, the body length reaches one and a half meters, about 70% falls on the head, the average weight is about 20 kg. The salient features of the fish are:

• A huge mouth with a lot of small but sharp teeth gives it a repulsive look. The fangs are located in the jaw in a special way: at an angle, which makes the capture of prey even more effective.
• Naked and scaleless head skin with fringes, tubercles and spikes also does not adorn the deep-sea dweller.
• On the head is the so-called fishing rod - a continuation of the dorsal fin, at the end of which is a leathery bait. This feature of the monkfish determines its second name - the anglerfish, despite the fact that the fishing rod is present exclusively in females.
• The bait consists of mucus and is a leathery bag that emits light due to the luminous bacteria living in the mucus. Interestingly, each type of anglerfish emits light of a certain color.
• The upper jaw is more mobile than the lower one, and due to the flexibility of the bones, the fish are able to swallow prey of impressive size.
• Small close-set round eyes are located on the top of the head.
• The color of the fish is inconspicuous: from dark gray to dark brown, which helps anglers to successfully disguise themselves on the bottom and deftly grab prey.

It is interesting how the fish hunts: it hides, putting out its bait. As soon as some careless little fish becomes interested, the devil will open his mouth and swallow it.

Habitat

Find out where the anglerfish (monkfish) lives. Habitat varies by species. So, European anglers prefer to live at a depth of up to 200 meters, but their deep-sea counterparts, of which more than a hundred varieties have been discovered, have chosen depressions and crevices for themselves, where there is a lot of pressure and no sunlight at all. They can be found at a depth of 1.5 to 5 km in the seas of the Atlantic Ocean.

Anglerfish are also found in the so-called Southern (Antarctic) Ocean, which combines the waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, washing the shores of the white continent - Antarctica. The monkfish also lives in the waters of the Baltic and Barents, Okhotsk and off the coast of Korea and Japan, some species are found in the Black Sea.

Varieties

Sea devils are fish from the Anglerfish squad. Currently, eight species are known, one of them is extinct. Representatives of each of them have a characteristic awesome appearance.

• American angler. It belongs to the bottom varieties, the body length is impressive - adult females are often more than a meter. In appearance, they resemble tadpoles because of the huge head. The average life expectancy is up to 30 years.
• South European anglerfish or black-bellied. The body length is about a meter, the name of the species is associated with the color of the peritoneum, the back and sides of the fish are pinkish-gray. The average life expectancy is about 20 years.
• The West Atlantic anglerfish is a demersal fish reaching a length of 60 cm. An object of fishing.
• Cape (Burmese). The most noticeable part of his body is a giant flattened head, and a short tail is also characteristic.
• Japanese (yellow, Far Eastern). They have an unusual body color - brown-yellow, live in the Japan, East China Seas.
• South African. Lives off the southern coast of Africa.
• European. A very large anglerfish, whose body length reaches 2 meters, is distinguished by a huge crescent-shaped mouth, small sharp teeth resemble hooks in their shape. Rod length - up to 50 cm.

Thus, all types of anglers have common characteristics - a huge mouth with a large number of small but sharp teeth, a fishing rod with bait - the most unusual way of hunting among the inhabitants of the underwater depths, bare skin. In general, the look of the fish is really frightening, so the loud name is fully justified.

Lifestyle

Scientists believe that the first anglers appeared on the planet more than 120 million years ago. The shape of the body and the specifics of the lifestyle are largely due to where the angler prefers to live. If then it is practically flat, if the angler has settled closer to the surface, then it has a body compressed from the sides. But regardless of the habitat, the monkfish (angler fish) is a predator.

The devil is a unique fish, it moves along the bottom not like its other counterparts, but with jumps made thanks to a strong pectoral fin. From this, another name for a marine inhabitant is a frog fish.

Fish prefer not to expend energy, therefore, even swimming, they spend no more than 2% of their energy reserve. They are distinguished by enviable patience, they are able to not move for a long time, waiting for prey, they practically do not even breathe - the pause between breaths is about 100 seconds.

Food

Previously, it was considered how monkfish hunt prey, attracting it with a luminous bait. It is interesting that the fish does not perceive the size of its prey, often large individuals larger than the angler itself come across in its mouth, so it cannot eat them. And because of the specifics of the device, the jaw cannot even let go.

The angler is famous for its incredible gluttony and courage, so it can even attack scuba divers. Of course, deaths from such an attack are unlikely, but the sharp teeth of a sea angler can disfigure the body of a careless person.

Favorite food

As previously mentioned, anglers are predators, preferring to use other deep-sea inhabitants of the seas as food. Monkfish's favorite treats include:

• Cod.
• Flounder.
• Skates are small.
• Acne.
• Cuttlefish.
• Squids.
• Crustaceans.

Sometimes mackerel or herring become victims of predators, this happens if a hungry anglerfish rises closer to the surface.

reproduction

Monk fish (angler) is amazing in almost everything. For example, the process of reproduction is very unusual for both marine life and wildlife in general. When the partners find each other, the male clings to the belly of his chosen one and tightly adheres to her, the fish seem to become a single organism. Gradually, the process goes even further - the fish have a common skin, blood vessels, and certain organs of the male - fins and eyes - atrophy as unnecessary. It is because of this feature that researchers have not been able to detect and describe the male anglerfish for a long time.

In males, only the gills, heart and genitals continue to function.

Having become acquainted with the description of the monkfish and the peculiarities of his lifestyle, we offer you to find out some interesting facts about this creepy fish:

Such is the monkfish - an unusual creation of nature, an inhabitant of the depths and an amazing predator using a trick that is not typical for other representatives of the fauna. Thanks to its tasty white meat, almost devoid of bones, the anglerfish is a fish of commercial importance.

Whatever they are called - and 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.

In fact, this is just a 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:

• European anglerfish (lat. Lophius piscatorius);
• American anglerfish (lat. Lophius americanus).

The appearance of the sea anglerfish

At the first glance at this creature, a remarkable organ is immediately evident - the "fishing rod". 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, he does not need a luminous flashlight, and he blocks the access of blood to the fishing fin, and the float fades before the start of a new hunt.

The whole appearance of the 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 sight of a monkfish that went hunting, with an open mouth full of sharp teeth, of course, makes an indelible impression. The skin on top is bare brown, covered with dark spots, sometimes with a reddish tint, and a light, almost white belly, serve as a good camouflage for the creature on a dark seabed.

monkfish habitat

Fish of this species are found in the seas and oceans around the world. Although its main refuge is still the Atlantic Ocean. Monkfish are also found off the coast of Europe and Iceland. In addition, it is caught in the Black and Baltic, and even in the cold North and Barents Seas. This rather unpretentious bottom fish can easily exist in water at temperatures from 0 to 20 degrees.

Anglerfish can live at different depths from 50 to 200 meters. True, there are also such specimens that prefer a depth of up to 2000 meters.

Hunters from the depths of the sea

The best pastime for the angler will be a calm and well-fed lying on the seabed in the sand or silt. But don't let his immovable body fool you. This is a very gluttonous, but patient creature. The sea scorpion can lie still for hours, tracking and waiting for the appearance of its prey. As soon as some curious fish swims by, the angler immediately grabs it and immediately stuffs it into his mouth.

It should be noted that the appetite of this fish is excellent. Very often he feeds on prey, which is almost not inferior to him in size. Because of this voracity, unpleasant and even fatal cases occur when anglers choke on prey that does not fit in their stomach, although its size is truly enormous. Sometimes they rise to the surface of the water and prey on birds whose feathers, stuck in their mouths, can lead to suffocation. After all, having grabbed the victim, the angler can no longer release it due to the specific structure of its teeth.

Monkfish also have another type of hunting. He literally jumps along the bottom with the help of the lower fins and, overtaking the victim, eats it.

Monkfish - a predator, the subject of his hunt are:

• small fish;
• small sharks - katrans;
• small stingrays or their cubs;
• variety of waterfowl.

Family life and reproduction of anglerfish

Monkfish females are many times larger than males. The role of males is reduced to nothing more than fertilization of eggs. Moreover, they have become lazy to the point that when they find a female, they cling to her with sharp teeth and remain with her for life. Over the years, some of their organs atrophy, and they become just appendages of the female, which do not need to hunt because they feed on the blood of the female. Sometimes several males stick to the female to fertilize more eggs.

When the mating season begins, the females descend to the depth and release a ribbon of caviar up to 10 meters long. The tape is divided into small hexagonal cells with eggs. 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 as a gastronomic dish

Despite the outward ugliness, monkfish meat is very tasty. In Spain and France, dishes from it are considered a delicacy. Most chefs use only the tail of the fish, but restaurants often use the head of the monkfish to make delicious seafood soup. Anglerfish meat is cooked in different ways:

• grilled;
• boiled for soups and salads;
• stew with vegetables.

It is white, almost boneless, dense and tender at the same time, reminiscent of lobster meat.

Anglerfish, or sea devils (Lophius) are very bright representatives of the genus of ray-finned fish belonging to the anglerfish family and the anglerfish order. Typical benthic inhabitants are found, as a rule, on a muddy or sandy bottom, sometimes semiburrowing into it. Some individuals settle among algae or between large rock fragments.

Description of the monkfish

On both sides of the angler's head, as well as along the edge of the jaws and lips, fringed skin hangs down, moving in the water and resembling algae in appearance. Thanks to this feature of the structure, anglers become hardly noticeable against the background of the ground.

Appearance

The European angler has a body length within a couple of meters, but more often - no more than one and a half meters.. The maximum weight of an adult is 55.5-57.7 kg. The aquatic inhabitant has a naked body, covered with numerous leathery growths and clearly visible bone tubercles. The torso is of a flattened type, compressed in the direction of the back and belly. The eyes of the monkfish are small, widely spaced. The dorsal area is brownish, greenish-brown or reddish in color with dark spots.

The American angler has a body length of no more than 90-120 cm, with an average weight in the range of 22.5-22.6 kg. The black-bellied anglerfish is a marine deep-sea fish, reaching a length of 50-100 cm. The body length of the West Atlantic anglerfish does not exceed 60 cm. The Burmese anglerfish, or Cape anglerfish, is characterized by a huge flattened head and a fairly short tail, which occupies less than a third of the total body length. The size of an adult individual does not exceed a meter.

It is interesting! The devil is a fish unique in appearance and lifestyle, capable of moving along the bottom with peculiar jumps, which are carried out due to the presence of a strong pectoral fin.

The total body length of the Far Eastern anglerfish is one and a half meters. The aquatic inhabitant has a large and wide flat head. The mouth is very large, with a protruding lower jaw, on which one or two rows of teeth are located. The skin of the monkfish is devoid of scales. The ventral fins are located in the throat area. Wide pectoral fins are distinguished by the presence of a fleshy lobe. The first three rays of the dorsal fin are isolated from each other. The upper part of the body is brown in color, with light spots surrounded by a dark border. The lower part of the body is characterized by a light color.

Character and lifestyle

According to many scientists, the very first sea anglers or sea devils appeared on our planet more than a hundred million years ago. Nevertheless, despite such a venerable age, the characteristic features of the behavior and lifestyle of anglerfish are currently not well understood.

It is interesting! One of the anglerfish's ways of hunting is to make jumps with the help of fins and then swallow the caught prey.

Such a large predatory fish practically does not attack a person, which is due to the considerable depth at which the anglerfish settles. When rising from a depth after spawning, too hungry fish can harm scuba divers. During this period, the monkfish may well bite a person by the hand.

How long do anglers live

The longest recorded lifespan of the American anglerfish is thirty years.. The black-bellied angler lives in natural conditions for about twenty years. The life expectancy of the Cape monkfish rarely exceeds ten years.

Types of sea devils

The genus Anglerfish includes several species represented by:

• American anglerfish, or American monkfish (Lophius americanus);
• Black-bellied anglerfish, or South European anglerfish, or Budegassa anglerfish (Lophius budegassa);
• West Atlantic anglerfish (Lophius gastrophysus);
• Far Eastern monkfish or Far Eastern anglerfish (Lophius litulon);
• European anglerfish, or European anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius).

Also known species are the South African anglerfish (Lophius vaillanti), the Burmese or Cape anglerfish (Lophius vomerinus) and the extinct Lorhius brachysomus Agassiz.

Range, habitats

The black-bellied angler has spread throughout the eastern Atlantic, from Senegal to the British Isles, as well as in the waters of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Representatives of the species West Atlantic anglerfish are found in the west of the Atlantic Ocean, where such an anglerfish is a bottom fish that lives at a depth of 40-700 m.

The American monkfish is an oceanic demersal (bottom) fish that lives in the waters of the northwest Atlantic, at a depth of no more than 650-670 m. The species has spread along the North American Atlantic coast. In the north of its range, the American angler lives at shallow depths, and in the southern part, representatives of this genus are sometimes found in coastal waters.

The European anglerfish is distributed in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, near the coast of Europe, from the Barents Sea and Iceland to the Gulf of Guinea, as well as the Black, North and Baltic Seas. The Far Eastern anglerfish belongs to the inhabitants of the Sea of ​​Japan, settles along the coastline of Korea, in the waters of Peter the Great Bay, and also near the island of Honshu. Part of the population is found in the waters of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Yellow Sea, along the Pacific coast of Japan, in the waters of the East China and South China Seas.

angler diet

Ambush predators spend most of their time waiting for their prey absolutely motionless, hiding on the bottom and almost completely merging with it. The diet consists mainly of a wide variety of fish and cephalopods, including squid and cuttlefish. Occasionally, the angler eats all kinds of carrion.

By the nature of their food, all sea devils are typical predators.. The basis of their diet is represented by fish that live in the bottom water column. In the stomach contents of anglerfish there are gerbils, small rays and cod, eels and small sharks, as well as flounder. Closer to the surface, adult aquatic predators are able to hunt mackerel and herring. There are well-known cases when anglers attacked not too large birds that sway peacefully on the waves.

It is interesting! When the mouth is opened, a so-called vacuum is formed, in which the flow of water with the victim quickly rushes into the mouth of the marine predator.

Thanks to the pronounced natural camouflage, the monkfish lying motionless on the bottom is almost invisible. For the purpose of disguise, an aquatic predator burrows into the ground or lurks in dense thickets of algae. Potential prey is attracted by a special luminous bait, located at the end part of a kind of fishing rod, represented by an elongated ray of the dorsal front fin. At the moment of close proximity of crustaceans, invertebrates or fish touching the esca, the lurking monkfish very sharply opens its mouth.

Reproduction and offspring

Individuals of various species become fully sexually mature at different ages. For example, male European anglerfish reach puberty at the age of six years (with a total body length of 50 cm). The maturation of females occurs only at the age of fourteen, when individuals reach almost a meter in length. European anglers spawn at different times. For all northern populations living near the British Isles, spawning is typical between March and May. All southern populations that inhabit the waters near the Iberian Peninsula spawn from January to June.

During the period of active spawning, males and females of representatives of the genus of ray-finned fish belonging to the anglerfish family and the anglerfish order descend to a depth of forty meters to two kilometers. Having descended into the deepest water, the female anglerfish begins to spawn, and the males cover it with their milk. Immediately after spawning, hungry mature females and adult males swim to areas of shallow water, where they feed intensively until the onset of the autumn period. Preparation of anglerfish for wintering is carried out at a fairly large depth.

Eggs laid by marine fish form a kind of ribbon, richly covered with mucous secretions. Depending on the species characteristics of the representatives of the genus, the total width of such a tape varies between 50-90 cm, with a length of eight to twelve meters and a thickness of 4-6 mm. Such tapes are able to drift freely through the watery sea. A peculiar masonry, as a rule, consists of a couple of million eggs, which are separated from each other and have a single layer arrangement inside special slimy hexagonal cells.

Over time, the walls of the cells are gradually destroyed, and thanks to the fatty drops inside the eggs, they are prevented from settling to the bottom and floating freely in the water. The difference between the born larvae and adults is the absence of a flattened body and large pectoral fins.

A characteristic feature of the dorsal fin and ventral fins is represented by strongly elongated anterior rays. The hatched anglerfish larvae stay in the surface layers of water for a couple of weeks. The diet is represented by small crustaceans, which are carried by water currents, as well as larvae of other fish and pelagic eggs.

It is interesting! Representatives of the species European monkfish have large caviar and its diameter can be 2-4 mm. The caviar that the American angler throws is smaller, and its diameter does not exceed 1.5-1.8 mm.

In the process of growth and development, monkfish larvae undergo peculiar metamorphoses, which consist in a gradual change in body shape to the appearance of adults. After the anglerfish fry reach a length of 6.0-8.0 mm, they descend to a considerable depth. Sufficiently grown young individuals actively settle in the middle depths, and in some cases, juveniles move closer to the coastline. During the very first year of life, the rate of growth processes in monkfish is as fast as possible, and then the process of development of the marine life noticeably slows down.

One of the most interesting inhabitants of the deep sea is the anglerfish. A repulsive appearance, an unusual way of hunting and relationships with the opposite sex noticeably distinguish her from other marine life. The dwelling of fish at great depths did not immediately make it possible to study it. Currently, ceratiform or deep-sea anglerfish include a dozen families and more than a hundred known species.

These fish live deep at the bottom

Appearance and varieties

According to one version, the nondescript and intimidating appearance, as well as the habitat, gave the fish its nickname deep-sea monkfish. Some individuals can reach a length of up to two meters. The fish has a disproportionate spherical body, the head occupies more than half of the body. Coloring helps her to perfectly disguise. Anglerfish are dark brown and black, but their belly is usually white.

The monkfish's mouth is huge, adorned with a row of sharp, inward-curved teeth. There may be moving leathery folds around the mouth, which also help the fish to successfully hide in the algae at the bottom and wait for prey.

The fish does not have scales, but in some species the bare skin is covered with scales that have been transformed into spines. The anglerfish has very poor eyesight and sense of smell, his eyes are very small. The fish raised to the surface looks completely different than at its usual depth. A swollen body and bulging eyes are a consequence of excess internal pressure.

There are 11 families of monkfish

Anglerfish can be divided into 11 families:

• Caulophrinic;
• Centrophrin;
• Ceratiaceae;
• Diceratium;
• Long stylus;
• Himantholophaceae;
• Linofrin;
• Melanocetes;
• Novocerathium;
• Oneyrodaceae;
• Thaumatihtovye.

Another characteristic feature of this species is the rod (illicium). In fact, this is an overgrown dorsal fin, namely the first ray. The species Ceratias holboelli can hide the illium by pulling it inside the body, while in Galatheathauma axeli it is located directly in the mouth.

In most species, the rod is directed forward and hangs directly to the mouth, luring prey. At the end of the illition there is an esca or lure. The esca is a leather pouch - it is a gland filled with mucus with bioluminescent bacteria, due to which the bait glows. Usually the glow is a series of flashes. Fish can make and stop glowing, controlling the process of vasodilation and constriction, since the gland needs blood flow, and bioluminescent bacteria need oxygen.

sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism refers to differences in anatomy between females and males of the same species. In anglers, this is especially pronounced. For a long time, scientists could not understand what a male anglerfish looks like, because they attributed males and females to two different species.

Distinctive feature - there is an illition

The sizes of females vary from 5 cm to 2 meters, and the weight reaches 57 kilograms. These predatory fish have a wide mouth and a strongly stretched stomach. They prey on other deep sea fish. Compared to them, males are just dwarfs, because they reach a length of no more than 4 cm.

Another difference is the presence of illition. Only the females of this fish have a fishing rod. Deep-sea angler hides other surprises. Unlike females, males have developed eyes and olfactory organs, which they need to search for a female.

Habitat and food

The deep-sea anglerfish lives in the thickness of the waters of the oceans. The fish is adapted to live at a depth of up to 3 kilometers. The anglerfish is especially common in the Atlantic Ocean, from the coast of Iceland to the Sea of ​​Guinea, preferring cool waters.

Females prey on other deep-sea fish - gonostomas, hauliods, melamfays, they also feed on crustaceans and sometimes cephalopods.

The hunting process is as follows. The angler lies at the bottom, hiding in silt and algae. He turns on the glow of the eska and twitches it so that it looks like the movement of a small fish. To catch the prey, the female patiently waits for her to swim to her. She draws small prey into herself, sucking along with water. It takes a few milliseconds to swallow a curious fish. Sometimes, due to its developed pectoral fins or releasing jets of water through the gills, the anglerfish can jump forward, attacking the prey.

The angler is an extremely voracious fish, it can attack prey that is three times its size. Although the fish's stomach is stretched to an impressive size, such a meal ends in death for the fish. Since her teeth are bent inward, she cannot spit out her prey and chokes.

Monkfish hunting methods are quite extraordinary

There have been cases where the anglerfish related species, the monkfish, has swallowed seabirds with the same outcome. As a rule, the angler rises to the top when it eats intensively after spawning. At such moments, he can attack a person.

• Caulophrinic;
• Linofrin;
• Ceratiaceae;
• Novoceratium.

Possessing good eyesight and sense of smell, males detect a female by emitting pheromones, which persist for a long time in a still water column. To understand if a female belongs to their species, males visually evaluate the shape of the rod and the frequency of outbreaks, which varies in all species. After making sure that the female is of the same species, the male swims up to her and tightly clings to her side with his teeth.

Having attached itself to the female, the male anglerfish loses its independence. After a while, it fuses with the female with the tongue and lips. His organs atrophy, in particular, eyes, teeth, jaws, organs of smell, fins, stomach. He becomes one with the female, feeding himself through a system of common blood vessels.

Males find females easily with the help of pheromones

reproduction

Like most species, the deep sea anglerfish breeds in spring and summer, although no seasonal changes occur at great depths. The tape of caviar can reach 10 meters. Millions of fertilized eggs rise to the upper layers of water, to a depth of no more than 30 – 200 meters. There, the larvae hatch and for some time are eaten off by crustaceans and chaetognaths, accumulating strength before the upcoming metamorphosis.

Deep-sea anglerfish larvae thrive in warm waters. They can be found in tropical and warm temperate ocean zones, where surface water temperatures can reach 20 degrees.

By the time metamorphosis occurs, the fry descend to a depth of 1 km. Sexually mature anglers descend to the usual depth of their habitat - 1500 – 3000 meters. Anglerfish can be carried by currents even to subarctic and subantarctic waters.

Eating

The European anglerfish or monkfish is a commercial fish species. and even considered a delicacy. Especially large quantities of monkfish are caught in Great Britain and France, but in general they are caught all over the world - in America, Africa, East Asia.

The fish gained its popularity due to dense boneless meat, although rather tough. The tail part of the anglerfish is used for food, soup is cooked from the head. The tail section is prepared in a variety of ways. Monkfish dishes are especially appreciated in France.

In this video you will learn more about this fish:

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. For fertilization of eggs to occur, two different fish - male and female monkfish 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...

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 though nasty in appearance, but tasty 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 the 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 earlobes 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.

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 attract the attention of a large predator to the anglerfish. Then the devil pinches the blood vessels of the fishing line and temporarily extinguishes his flashlight.

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. Suitors have large eyes and an impressive olfactory organ, which helps 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.

Some species of deep-sea anglerfish are considered edible. They are caught in the USA, Africa and East Asia. Especially popular in North America is 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.

White, dense, boneless and extremely tender meat of this fish can do honor to any festive table. It is suitable both for frying in pieces and open in the shape of a butterfly, or for frying in a grill, cut into cubes 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.

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, monkfish are often called "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 and weigh 30-40 kg. Smaller specimens usually go on sale. But even this size monkfish can swallow a fairly large fish. They say that in the belly of one anglerfish, 65 cm long, they found a young cod 58 cm long. Monkfish are found in many seas, mainly in the Atlantic and in the North Sea, up to Iceland.

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."

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.

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 itself, but could not let go because 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.

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 of the deep sea. 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.

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.