Ahhhh the anglerfish, a well-known terror thanks to its various appearances in Natural History documentaries and animated features. Like the mole rat, the anglerfish has no reason to be pretty in the common sense of the word. It lives in the cold, dark depths of the ocean, where nobody can judge. Their deep dwelling also makes them incredibly hard to study. But we do know there are 18 families of anglerfish swimming around out there, each one as impressively grotesque as the last. The anglerfish is a bony balloon with a huge gaping mouth slit across the front half of its form. Tooth-pick teeth protrude out of its gums, ready to serrate its prey. This unfortunate prey is completely unsuspecting; the angler lures it in with the illicium growing from its head a fleshy fishing rod that flashes in the depths of the oceans thanks to symbiotic bacteria that help it to glow and capture prey up to twice the anglers size. It is the females of this fish that are so big, sporting this luminescent rod. She also uses this rod to lure in a male when she is ready to mate. In some species, the male lives solely to find and mate with a female. When this finally happens, he bites into her skin and releases an enzyme that fuses his mouth to her body. He receives nutrients to survive, and provides sperm as his payment. Although its not necessarily monogamous, with some females having up to eight males tagging along, the partnership lasts for life.
