Musings on the unhappy fate of anglerfish
So anyway. It recently came to my attention that anglerfish are quite possibly the most unfortunate of fish. At least if they’re male. I don’t know how the females feel about the situation, but at least they get to keep swimming around attracting things into their horrible, fanged maws with bright and deceptive little lights. The males don’t even get to eat after they hit puberty.
Anyway, on to the unfortunate fate of male anglerfish and why they get to stop having the munchies. Male anglerfish are much smaller than female anglerfish, and it’s probably a good thing, because once they become adults, they get to attach themselves to the undersides of a female fish. They find the female through their super snazzy ultra-good sense of smell.
Once the male has attached himself, he secretes an enzyme that dissolves his and the female’s skin and he fuses with her on a blood vessel level. Then he proceeds to atrophy into nothing other than a pair of nads. Weak.
However, this does mean that the female had a ready-made mate available anytime she wants to pop out more baby anglerfish to terrify unsuspecting tiny deep sea fish. Dimorphism in the extreme.
Seriously guys, be glad you’re not an anglerfish. And well, me, I just don’t really want ridiculous giant fangy jaws anyway. Though a weird little light lure might be kind of cool. You know, for the days I want to attract moths for the cat to eat or walk to the mailbox in the dark.
