Creature 288: Antennariidae

Yes, it is a fish

For some reason I don't understand this family of fish called Antennariidae is referred to in the common tongue as frog fish.

Frogfish are related to Melanocetidae, the finding nemo style angler fish. Frofish also have lures to catch their prey. Some frogfish can swallow prey twice their size. Their body is covered with weird bumps and spines and some species will grow plants or animals on their skin to camouflage. 

Many frog fish posses the ability to change their color or even their shape to aid in camouflage. They don't swim very much, which is weird considering they are fish. They prefer tho use their fins to walk along the ocean floor.

The next  image is my own, do what you want with it.

Distribution:
Frogfish live in tropical and subtropical water all over the world. Unlike many related families they are usually shallow water dwellers often living in reefs. There are a few deep sea species.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Lophiiformes
Family: Antennariidae

Image Links:

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/frogfish

Creature 103: Ogcocephalus darwini

A fish with makeup

Description:

Ogcocephalus darwini is known as the Red-Lipped Batfish because they are batfish and they have red lips. When I say red lips, I mean really red:

Despite being fish, they are actually not very good at swimming and rely mostly on crawling along the ocean floor on their bony jointed fins. That nose-like projection on the top of their head is actually a lure which is bio-luminescent. It attracts prey towards it in much the same way that the angler fish hunts. They live fairly close to the water's surface compared with other bio luminescent fish, which usually live in the aphotic zones of the ocean. Red-Lipped Batfish live at depths of 3 m or deeper.

Distribution:
Red-Lipped Batfish are found off the coast of the Galapagos Islands and the Cocos Islands (Costa Rican Cocos Islands, Not the Indian ocean Cocos Islands).

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Lophiiformes
Family: Ogcocephalidae
Genus: Ogcocephalus
Species: Ogcocephalus darwini

Image Links:
http://www.divencounters.com/live-aboard-diving-blog/2012/10/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_lipped_batfish.jpg

Creature 10: Melanocetidae

Just like finding nemo

Description: Today’s animal is the hideous looking deep sea fish Melanocetidae, commonly known as the clack sea devils, which are a type of deep sea angler fish. They are famous for its unusual strategy of luring in its prey with a small light producing structure attached to {an outgrowth of their spine}. The end of this structure contains bioluminescent bacteria, which produce the glow that entices their prey. The angler fish will lure them in and then, well with teeth like that you can imagine what will happen.

Most people have heard of the angler fish at least from finding nemo and have heard all that stuff about the bioluminescent bacteria, but what is less often mentioned is that this is only the female. Male angler fish are much smaller than the females, often 10 times smaller or more. They exhibit a rare life history strategy known as sexual parasitism. This is one of the most bizarre examples of parasitism in the animal kingdom. When they reach sexual maturity they latch on to a female and eventually burrow under her scales. They then parasitise the female for the rest of their life while fusing their circulatory systems together. Most of the body of the male fish is further reduced once it has becomes attached to a female, except the testicles which expand, providing the female with a means of fertilizing her eggs. In fact the male anglar fish Photocorynus spiniceps (Family Lynophrynidae) is said to be the smallest fish in the world. Some females can have up to 6 males living off them. I guess this behaviour is a product of the fact that members of the same species are hard to come by in the aphotic zones of the ocean, so when you find them, you latch on.

They can catch prey which is larger than themselves and stretch their body more than twice its original size to accommodate them, probably due to the scarcity of food in the aphotic zone.

Distribution:
Melanocetidae are found in all the world's oceans, but only in the mesopelagic, bathyalpelagic and higher up in the abyssalpelagic zones of the ocean.

Classification:
Actually the term angler fish can apply to any member of the Order Lophiiformes, and not all of them live in the deep ocean. I decided that the Melanocetidae had the meanest looking appearance out of the Anglerfish families. The family contains only a single known genus; Melanocetus.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Acinopterygii
Order: Lophiiformes
Family: Melanocetidae

Image links:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melanocetus_johnsonii.001_-_Natural_History_Museum_of_London.JPG?uselang=en-gb
http://mudfooted.com/deep-sea-anglerfish-bizarre-reproduction/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melanocetus_johnsonii.002_-_Natural_History_Museum_of_London.JPG?uselang=en-gb