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”
what is the name of the light on the head of the angler fish?
Hi. Love the website. My family and I have actually seen an angler fish in the Ripley’s aquarium in the Smokey Mts. It’s pretty cool and kept in a dark, cold tank to simulate the deep ocean I guess. Last spring we were in the Charleston, SC aquarium with my son and saw a dvd of the deep ocean with an angler fish on the cover. As he was only allowed to choose one video he chose a great white shark one. now he really wants the other one. Does anyone have any idea what the title or maker of this dvd is? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
I don’t think it’s all that stupid to be arguing about a fish at all. In fact, I’ve had lots of fun reading the comments people have posted, (it took me two nights to get through it all).
My personal opinion is that the fish is an Angler fish. Both the Pixar Animator, Artistic Designer (Jadey), and even the producer in the commentary on the DVD, say that they based it on the Angler fish with some extra modifications.
I found the first few links to show pretty good pictures of the Angler, Viper, etc. and “Deepsea”‘s info on the angler was very informative.
To Juliet, Disney only concentrats on detail with the first of each of their movies, i.e. Lion King 1 was better than the Lion King 2, same for Aladin, The hunchback of Notredam… Any Disney cartoon is great, but in all the sequels i’ve seen, except for the pixar animations, the quality degrades a little.
To whoever brought up the Hot heads, I believe that some of the letters were as much a joke as the original article.
And as for the “rude” people, (I didn’t find them that offensive), i just say to everyone else, just to ignore any “offencive” bit, and get back to arguing about fish.
I’m having so much FUN!!!
P.S. I’m 19, love disney movies, and Love this site.
After taking much time reading through all the comments on this page I have come to the conclusion like several other people that the Finding Nemo monster fish is a blend of the Angler Fish, the Viper Fish and also the Lantern Fish. The body of the fish is more like that of the Angler Fish. Both the Angler fish and the Viper fish have the illuminated lure. The Viper fish has the mouth structure of the fish in the movie with the large jaw and enormous fang like teeth. The large eyes on the movie fish are not characteristic of either the Viper or the Angler, but does look a lot like those found on the Lantern Fish. The Lantern fish is also able to illuminate at will. But thank you everyone for all the great links and arguments. I definatly agree that it is a silly argument over it being one or the other, it’s a cartoon. Cartoons don’t have to be realistic people…Whoever heard of a big round monster with one eye befriending a big hairy blue guy. Boo from Monsters Inc was supposed to be about 5 right….well she didn’t have a very developed language ability did she…my 3 year old can speak better than she could. Now Toy Story, there was a realistic movie…did everyone else’s toys come to life like that too? That totally explains why they were never where I left them.
finding nemo is the best movie EVER!!! and if you look at the extra commentary, it does say the fish that dory and marlin come up againist IS an angler fish, so blah.
Hey, I actually cant believe this fish is real, but doing research I see that it is, its just one of Gods creatures and are here for a reason, and beautiful in a way scary way thanks Dae Dae
hey y’all… it’s just a fish. It’s an angler fish. They added things to make the fish look more scary. The anglers I have heard about have small eyes and are not normally very big. However, it is possible for an angler fish to measure up to the size of 4 meters. The angler fish on “Finding Nemo” may not fit the angler definition completely but it is a pretty close picture. Disney added extra features to make the creature look more alive and scarrier. This happens in movies all the time, it is not a big deal.
Just a movie. Just for fun.
Have a good one!
-Melanie
it is true the fish is deffinetly an angler fish, if you have the DVD Finding Nemo in the special features the animators are talking about the animations in the movie and they say that it was hard making the ANGLER FISH
Thank You SO much! I thought “hot heads” were real this entire time! lol.
Is there such thing as a angler fish? I always thought it was called a lantren fish.