Fish angler - a striking creation of nature

Fish angler refers to the suborder of ceratioidei (Ceratioidei), the order of Lophiiformes, which includes more than 100 species. It dwells in the oceanic depth at depths of 1.5 to 3 km. Its body is spherical, oblate at the sides. The head is huge, occupying more than half of the total length. The mouth is awesome, with long sharp Teeth. Naked skin has a dark color, spines and plaques are characteristic only for some species. "Fishing rod", which gave the name of the detachment, is the modified first ray of the fin located on the back. It is only for females.

There was an opinion that the ugly form with bulging eyes has a fish angler. The photo shows it after lifting from the depth. In its typical environment, it looks completely different. And we estimate the consequences of a huge pressure difference (at 250 atmospheres) in the water column and on the surface.

A deep-sea angler is an amazing creation. Female individuals are larger in size than men in the hundreds of times. The females that were caught and extracted from sea water were between 5 and 100 cm in length, and males from 1.6 to 5 cm. This is one of the manifestations of sexual dimorphism. The second is an illusion, in the common people - a rod of females. It should be noted that it ends in a glowing light due to Bioluminescent bacteria "bait." Fish angler is able to "turn on and off" it by narrowing the vessels that feed a kind of iron with blood. The length of an illusion varies from species to species. In some, it can lengthen and contract, luring the victim directly into the mouth of the hunter.

It is amazing and nutrition of these fish. Females eat deep-sea fish, crustaceans, and occasionally mollusks. Their stomach can grow in size at times. There are cases when they swallowed the victims much larger than themselves. Such greed led to death, because The female was choked with a "dinner", but could not let go of it, long teeth detained. Males, considering the small size, are accessible copepods and bristle-jaw.

Some species of anglers are characterized by parasitism of males. This is manifested in the fact that a male specimen, having discovered a female by pheromones, clings to it with teeth, and can not disconnect any more. Over time, his jaws, teeth, intestines, eyes They lose the need to function, although before meeting with her he was a full-fledged organism. Their blood vessels grow together, and the male as a result becomes an appendage of the female, but capable of producing sperm. Sometimes a single female can be parasitized several times by a man.

Fish angler breeds in the spring-summer period. Females sweep small eggs, males fertilize them. From the depth of the eggs pop up into the near-surface layer (up to 200 m), where there is more opportunity to feed. Here, larvae appear. By the moment of metamorphosis, the grown-up fry descend to a depth of 1 km. After the transformation, the angler fish will go to an even greater depth, where he will reach sexual maturity and live his own life.

Fish angler is one of the manifestations of the diversity of the natural world. Apparent to us a wonderful way of existence, it was not accidentally worked out for centuries. Much remains unexplored. Perhaps one day an explanation will be found.