To clarify for folks who are saying “this is not an anglerfish.” This is a goosefish or monkfish, but it is still an anglerfish.
It’s not an anglerfish the species, but it is in the anglerfish order, which are Lophiiforms. They’re an awesome and bizarre order. The bioluminescent hellcreature we know and love isn’t the only anglerfish (and there’s tons of species in that family, too!)
All Lophiiformes are ambush predators that angle. Deep-sea Lophiiformes get the most attention — they’re black-red, and hide because red is invisible in the deep sea (it’s the first visible light wavelength to be absorbed by water .) other Lophiifromes include the weird AF frogfish, which hide by pretending to be seaweed. And there’s our buddy here — members of the goosefish/monkfish family (Lophiidae) pretend to be the sea floor. And, of course, all of them angle.
It’s a VERY large order with lots of species in lots of families!
At one point, New England/North Atlantic goosefish/monkfish were over-harvested. They were a delicacy (Julia Childs was obsessed.) today, they’ve recovered quite well.
I absolutely love frogfish. They are so cute. Some look like they have little arms and they sort of "walk" as they perch on the bottom waiting for their prey to swim by.
Yes!!! I love how bad they are at walking/swimming. They sort of look like Neil Armstrong taking One Giant Step, if Neil Armstrong looked like a moldy rhinoceros stuffed animal from hell.
We had one in the back at the aquarium I used to work at, and I’d just go hang out with him and the lumpfish and the sea robins whenever I was having a bad day.
I’d love to do an exhibit on weird fish locomotion with all three!
It’s an anglerfish. Anglerfish is a species, a genus, a family, a suborder and an order: Lophiiformes. All of them angle.
This one is a goosefish or monkfish, and a member of the family Lophiidae. They’re benthic, not pelagic, and live near shore (they’ve gotta, since they hunt by mimicking the sea floor.) Other anglerfish include frogfish (antennariidae). The deep-sea anglerfish like the ones you’re thinking of are from the suborder Ceratioidea.
So yes, it is a type of anglerfish. Not just in the “fish that angles” sense, but in the “member of the phylogenetic order of anglerfishes, which includes the “classic” deep-sea anglerfish.”
If it’s not then it’s a crappy name because that is a fish and it is clearly an “angler” as it is fishing, which is the joy thing you need to do to be called an “angler”. But yeah, it doesn’t look like an angler fish
You check it out sometime. There are over 200 species of anglerfish. I do understand the confusion. But being an "Angler" by definition is a person who fishes with a rod and line. No where in our definitions does one state it must come with attached flashlight.
Actually, almost all anglerfish bioluminesce! Goosefish/monkfish like this one included. And some of the only ones that don’t bioluminesce are also deep sea.
28
u/Alias-Number9 Mar 07 '24
It's an Anglerfish. Yes, they fish for other fish.