You Know AnglerFish, But Do You Know The Different Species? They’re All Equally Terrifying

The black devil anglerfish is the stereotypical anglerfish. Female black devils have the distinctive bioluminescent lure attached to their heads. The lure shines brightly in the pitch black ocean where the creature resides. Once prey gets close enough to the mesmerizing light, the predator”s razor-sharp teeth snatch up the hapless fish.

This cute little bugger is renowned for its strange mating habits. It”s one of those rare fish species that mates for life, but in a very different way than you probably think. When a male meets a female in the wild, the male will bite into the female and attach himself to her.

At this point, the male is pretty much just a pair of testes chemically joined to the female. From then on, whenever the female is ovulating, a hormone in her blood tells the attached male to start producing sperm to fertilize the eggs.

Like the black devil anglerfish, the female bearded anglerfish has a bioluminescent lure to attract its prey. However, unlike the black devil, the bearded anglerfish”s lure branches out from the bottom of its head in a complex pattern. To an unsuspecting fish, the lure might look like a piece of seaweed except when they get close enough to check it out. When that happens, they quickly find themselves locked between the creature”s fangs.

The monkfish is another kind of anglerfish, only deadlier. These fish like to lay in wait on the ocean floor and dangle their lure in front of passing prey. They have some of the best camouflage in the animal kingdom and are very hard to spot. As soon as another fish comes into contact with the monkfish”s lure, it lashes out at lightning speed, making escape impossible.

The warty frogfish is a type of anglerfish that prefers shallow waters near coral reefs. The frogfish is known as an aggressive mimic, meaning that it blends in with its environment perfectly. It”s almost impossible to identify the frogfish as anything more than a piece of coral until you”re almost right on top of it. The frog fish uses its tail to attract prey, then strikes when the moment is right.