Anglerfish Essay

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The deep sea anglerfish is one of about 200 species of anglerfish that are currently living in the deep oceans today (Animals Time). The definition of the word “anglerfish” means a fish having a large mouth with a long filament for luring prey. A synonym of the word anglerfish is goosefish (Dictionary). The scientific name is Melanocetus johnsoni (Seasky). The deep sea anglerfish belongs to the class of Lophiiformes (Animals Time). The deep sea anglerfish also has a nickname which is known as the common black devil because of how it looks. Due to its dark skin color, and its scary looks and sharp ferocious teeth it has been seen as a mysterious sea creature (Seasky).
The deep sea anglerfish have very small eyes (Seasky). The color of the anglerfish can be a deep black, a dark shade of grey, or a dark brown (Buzzle). The anglerfish’s skin is very fragile and sensitive. If a person even touches it, the skin might fall off from the anglerfish (Deep Sea Creatures). The deep sea anglerfish is shaped like a basketball (National Geographic) and is not able to swim well due to its body shape (Frogfish). The female anglerfish body size ranges from about three inches to about a foot long, but there have been some larger female anglerfish that are about three feet long. The male anglerfish is a tiny dwarf compared to the female in terms of size. The male anglerfish is about as big as a small human pinky finger. It is hard to find many mature anglerfish in the deep ocean because both male and female anglerfish reach sexual maturity quite late in their lives (Bioexpedition).
The esca of the anglerfish is the body part of the anglerfish that waves around in front of its head to attract prey. The "rod" is the part of the esca which is attached...

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...e it never eats (Its Nature).
2) The esca is connected to the female anglerfish's mouth nerves, so fish or other sea creatures near the photophore will get eaten (Odd Animals).
3) The prey usually gets eaten within a fraction of a second. (Odd Animals).
4) When the female anglerfish want to lay eggs, it can trigger sperm in the parasitic males’ bodies. 5) Most of the anglerfish larvae won’t live to become mature because of all the predators out there (Bioexpedition).
6) A group of anglerfish, like other kinds of fish, are called a school (Animals Time).
7) The name of the anglerfish comes from the esca on the female anglerfish top (Its Nature).
8) The male has to find a female to mate with or he will die (Its Nature).
9) Anglerfish also can sense where prey is coming from using hair cells (Frogfish).
10) The lifespan of the anglerfish is up to 24 years (Gwinnett).

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