Who is an angler. Angler. Here are some interesting facts about angler fish

One of the most interesting inhabitants sea ​​depths- It's an anglerfish. Repulsive appearance, unusual way hunting and relationships with the opposite sex noticeably distinguish her from others marine life. The habitat of the fish 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.

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-curving 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 one salient feature of this species is a rod (illicium). In fact, this is an overgrown dorsal fin, namely the first ray. The species Ceratias holboelli can hide the illitium 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 figure out what a male anglerfish looked like because they classified males and females in two different types.

Distinctive feature- there is an illusion

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 their developed pectoral fins or by shooting jets of water through the gills, the anglerfish can jump forward to attack its 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 when a species related to the anglerfish, the monkfish, swallowed sea ​​birds 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 the female by the emitted pheromones, which persist for a long time in the 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 great depth there are no seasonal changes. 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 feel good 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. In especially large quantities Monkfish are mined 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:

The monkfish is a predatory fish of the anglerfish order. 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 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.

It is worth saying that in aquatic life 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 himself 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.

Whole appearance monkfish betrays in him an inhabitant of the deep sea. Elongated torso, with unnatural big head, everything is covered with some kind of growths, vaguely 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 the 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.

Food

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.

The male anglerfish is several times smaller than the 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. Fertility sea ​​anglerfish pretty 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 travel on their own to 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.

Angler 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 monkfish catches 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. Fillet fried in oil 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 onions, 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 due 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, meatballs the size of a walnut are formed, and steamed. Puree is served in deep bowls, with a dozen meatballs in each and sprinkled with fresh herbs.

In Korea, monkfish are used to make the national dish Hye and cook a sweet and spicy soup, to which a lot of vegetables and batter-fried monkfish (fillet) are added. 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 with sweet and sour sauce, poached fish with lemon and lemon zest, as well as stewed and served with parsley or spinach sauce with cheese. Fried fish with chili pepper, smoked paprika and ginger, poached in white wine, creamy 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. The fish is served with a creamy sauce and potato medallions fried in oil.

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.

I will tell you today about one terrible, but charming inhabitant of the deep sea - deep sea anglerfish . At the mention of this creature, a frame from the cartoon about the fish Nemo immediately comes to mind.

This picture is not far from the truth :)

deep sea anglers or cerate-like (lat. Ceratioidei) - a suborder of deep-sea fish from the anglerfish order, whose representatives live at great depths of the oceans.

Deep-sea anglerfish constantly live at a depth of about 1500 - 3000 m. They are characterized by a spherical, laterally flattened shape of the theme and the presence of a "fishing rod" in females. Their bare skin is black or dark brown; in some species, the skin may be covered with transformed scales - spines and plaques.

Traditionally, it is considered that deep sea fish have bloated bodies with bulging eyes and ugly shapes, but they are not. Deep-sea fish take on the appearance of swollen bodies when they are raised to the surface in fishing nets due to excess internal pressure, which at depths of 1500-3000 meters is 150-300 atmospheres.

Anglerfish are distinguished by pronounced sexual dimorphism. Females are much larger than males and are predators. They have a large mouth, powerful teeth, and a highly extensible stomach. First beam dorsal fin females turned into a "fishing rod" (illicium) with a luminous "bait" (escoy) at the end. But the most pronounced sexual dimorphism is manifested in size. The length of females varies from 5 cm to 1 m, the length of males - from 16 mm to 4 cm.

Illicium in females various kinds varies in shape and size and is provided with various skin appendages. In some species, the illicium is able to extend and retract into a special canal on its back. While luring the prey, the anglerfish gradually moves the luminous bait to the mouth until it swallows its prey.

The luminous organ is a mucus-filled gland containing bioluminescent bacteria. Thanks to the expansion of the walls of the arteries that supply the gland with blood, the fish can arbitrarily cause the glow of bacteria that need oxygen to do this, or stop it by constricting the vessels. Usually the glow occurs in the form of a series of successive flashes, individual for each species. The benthic galateatum, which lives at a depth of about 3600 m, has a luminous bait in its mouth. Unlike other deep-sea anglers, she apparently hunts lying on the bottom.

Adult female anglerfish feed on deep-sea fish, crustaceans, and, less commonly, cephalopods; males - copepods and chaetognaths. The stomach of females is able to stretch very strongly, due to which they can swallow prey, often exceeding them in size. The voracity of anglers sometimes leads to their own death. They found dead anglers with swallowed fish, exceeding them in size by more than 2 times. Having captured such big booty, the angler cannot release it because of the peculiar structure of the teeth and chokes.

Everyone Good night and good dreams! :)

Original taken from

These live unusual fish at a depth of 3000 meters.
Their skin is black (dark brown individuals are found).
The spherical shape of the body reaches a length of one meter (sometimes larger individuals are also found), weight - from 5 to 8 kg, a huge mouth with terrifying teeth ... the gloomy look of terrible eyes ... such are the females ...
And what are the males of deep-sea anglerfish?
The length of the male is about 4 cm. I specify - a large male :) Usually their length is from 16 mm, and their weight is from 14 mg.

Despite the fact that adult anglers live at depths where there are no seasonal changes, all species breed in spring or summer time. Spawning takes place at depth.

Females spawn millions of small (no more than 0.5-0.7 mm in diameter) eggs, which gradually rise up. Larvae 2-3 mm long hatch in the near-surface layer of 30-200 m.

By the beginning of metamorphosis, juveniles have time to descend to a depth of more than 1000 m. In the layer of 1500-2000 m, anglerfish already live, having passed metamorphosis and reached maturity. These vertical migrations are of adaptive importance, since only in the near-surface layer are inactive and numerous larvae able to find enough food to accumulate supplies for the upcoming metamorphosis.
Deep-sea anglerfish larvae are found only in tropical and temperate warm zones World Ocean, lying between 40 ° N. sh. and 35°S sh. and limited by summer isotherms of 20 °C in surface waters. In higher latitudes, including subarctic and subantarctic waters, only adults are found, which get there due to their removal by currents.

The angler fish got its name from the “fishing rod with a luminous bait” located on its head. This is a process formed (only in females!) from the 1st ray of the dorsal fin of the fish. Each type of angler is different.

For example, in Ceratias holboelli, the process extends and retracts. This predator throws its bait away and with small jerks lures the future dinner right into its mouth. And there the fish remains to open it more and slam it in time.
At the tip of this process is a small pouch that glows in the dark. It is filled with slime with bioluminescent bacteria. By regulating the flow of blood with oxygen to the sac, the fish controls the brightness of the "bulb". In some species, it is located directly in the mouth. This eliminates the need to "catch a fish with a bait." The prey itself swims into the mouth of the predator.

Anglers are very voracious. Their stomachs can stretch to colossal sizes. Any female can swallow a prey that is several times her size.
To swallow, she will swallow the victim, but it’s not in vain that they say that gluttony will not lead to good, because as a result of her greed, the glutton will certainly die herself, because she cannot release the victim (teeth do not allow), but she is unable to digest ...

It is traditionally believed that the appearance of deep-sea fish is a swollen spherical body, necessarily bulging eyes.

This is not entirely correct. The fact is that the bodies of deep-sea fish become swollen only when they rise to the surface of the water. This happens due to the excess internal pressure, which is 150-300 atmospheres at a depth of 1500-3000 m.

Watch the video "Anglers" here:

anglerfish female Haplophryne mollis with males attached to it

Robbie N Cada / Wikimedia Commons

Deep-sea anglerfish or ceratiform are called fish from the suborder Ceratioidei. These predatory fish live at depths up to 4500 meters and feed on other fish and crustaceans. They got their name for an unusual way of hunting: many anglers have a “fishing rod” above their heads, into which the first, second or third ray of the dorsal fin has turned and which can move in all directions. She has a bait at the end that attracts others predatory fish. When the prey swims too close to the mouth of the anglerfish, it swallows it. In some species, bioluminescent bacteria live in the bait, so it emits light.

A rare video was filmed by the spouses Christine and Joachim Jacobsen (Kirsten and Joachim Jakobsen) at a depth of 800 meters. They observed deep-sea animals near the Azores from the Lula1000 submarine, which can dive to a depth of one kilometer and is used to scientific observations since 2013. It should be noted that the researchers did not specify what species the pair of anglerfish they encountered belonged to.

Recently, biologists that other deep-sea fish, white rays, have learned to use hydrothermal vents at the bottom as incubators for breeding. The researchers found about 150 stingray egg capsules near the "black smokers".

Ekaterina Rusakova