Angler Fish

Angler Fish, common name for any of about 265 related salt-water fishes that have appendages resembling fishing rods or lures with which they entice their prey. The common angler fish is found along the coasts of Europe and North America from the British Isles and Nova Scotia to Barbados. Up to 1.5 m (5 ft) long, these fishes live on the ocean floor, creeping along on modified pectoral fins in search of food. With a huge mouth and distensible stomach, an angler can swallow other fish as large as itself. Angler fish are also known as goosefishes, and they are often marketed under the name monkfish. Other groups of anglers include batfishes, frogfishes, and sea toads.

One of the most unusual aspects of anglers is their reproductive behaviour. In many species of deep-sea anglers, the male is less than one tenth the size of the female and lacks her characteristic lure. The parasitic male attaches himself to the body of his mate by biting through the skin of the female host. The circulatory systems of the two fish then join, and nutrients from the blood of the female provide the male angler with his only source of nourishment. Anglers are the only fish that exhibit this type of extreme sexual dimorphism.

Scientific classification: Anglers make up the order Lophiiformes. Those known as goosefishes make up the family Lophidae in the suborder Lophioidei, including the common angler fish, or European goosefish, classified as Lophius piscatorius. Sexual dimorphism is characteristic of anglers belonging to the suborder Ceratioidei, often referred to as deep-sea anglers. Other groups of anglers include the batfish family, Ogcocephalidae, the frogfish family, Antennariidae, and the sea toad family, Chaunacidae.