So the other night, my son asks me about this fish he saw in Finding Nemo. Normally I might not share such a tale, because it’s probably only memorable to our family – but the answers found from this innocent question were pretty impressive indeed.
You see, the alleged fish has a light on it’s head and huge fangs. I don’t know about you, but I’d never heard of such a beast. In fact, I thought it sounded like someone had been having a little fun in the animation room. I even made the mistake of mentioning that it might not be completely real!
You can imagine my surprise when I finally found a picture of the fish in question. That’s a freaky fish indeed, and it seems that very little imagination would be necessary to get this fellow looking like a scary fish!
So I looked around some more and found all sorts of information, including this little tidbit that seems to provide all the information you might need (sorry, link died). You see, apparently this vicious beast is the female of the species! And you thought human women were bad! Luckily they only live at depths of 1,600 to 10,000 feet!
The luminous organ on her head actually attracts her prey. She can vibrate the thing, too, presumably to attract prey if they’re blind. The worst part is that the male of the species lives only to bond himself to the body of the female and provide his seed so that the species may continue. He’s also a lot smaller and not quite as strange looking!
Comments
215 responses to “The Angler Fish”
Wow – definitely a pretty ugly fish. Some interesting facts and a picture at this site. They eat not only other fish, but birds and turtles. According to this link, they can actually swallow fish that are equal to their own weight. Very impressive indeed!
I stumbled on this site doing a search for angler fish. I had seen something in a magazine on a plane about them, and it reminded me of them. Im an avid fish breeder, and had always been interested in anglers. There are 4 general classes of anglers: batfish, goosefish, shallow-water anglers and deap-sea anglers. If you want to see a scary fish, go a google search for “goosefish”…Pretty amazing.
Someone – I think that Jess is saying that the fish in the film is actually a cross somewhere between the viper fish and the angler fish, and that that cross-fish hasn’t been found yet.
I still lean towards the fish being an Angler, though I’m certainly interested to hear about other possibilities. Also, thanks for the link – always nice to see some new pictures!
Obviously, if you’d watch the Discovery channel you would know that the angler fish has already been found live with the help of special submersibles.
You can visit this web site to see some pictures of angler fish pictures taken Dr Peter Herring while on board the RS Discovery Vessel. Apparently there’s about 120 different species of it.
I believe I can shed a little light on this subject. Deep water fish have been of interest to me for some time and when I saw Finding Nemo last night I was a litte confused. From my understanding the fish in question is actually a hybrid of the angler and viper fish. The animators evidently decided to include characterists of both fish. The fish in the movie probably exists, but it hasn’t been found yet.
It is an Angler Fish that was in the movie “Finding Nemo,” I was doing a school project (11th grade Marine Science) on a fish of my choice. I have always been interested in this fish, so, I chose it. I would just like to second the fact that it IS a Angler Fish, or Lophius Piscatarius, that was in “Finding Nemo.” Thanks.
I like to see one angler fish in my life
I don’t think that you’re correct with the viper fish designation. Check out this link for a pretty up-close picture. The mouth is similar, but there’s no lure on the head, and the fish in Nemo certainly had one. It was it’s defining characteristic, in fact. Or did you think she (the fish, that is) carried a flashlight?
But don’t take my word for it. There are a number of folks much smarter than myself who claim that the fish in Finding Nemo was indeed an angler fish. I found a grand total of two who ID the fish as a viper fish (or viperfish). Of course, maybe everyone else is just wrong. But I’m thinking not in this case. Especially since Disney/Pixar claim that it’s an angler fish on their token site (#10).
actually i don’t believe it was an angler fish. To me it seemed to be the species known as the viper fish. Check it out.
Thank you, thank you, thank you…. My son has also been asking me about that fish. I am a teacher, so I was impressed by the authenticity of “Finding Nemo” AND am happy that my son finds science information so interesting, BUT… I thought I would have a difficult time finding information and photographs. Thank you for making this task simple….. David is only 6, so too much information is not needed!