The anglerfish is probably the most well known deep-sea fish, and for good reason.

While the anglerfish’s bioluminescent angler is the most popular fact about the fish (it’s named for it after all), it is not the only intriguing thing about the animal. The differences between males and females, for example, is that male anglerfish are much smaller than female anglerfish and more or less exist solely to mate with females as they lack bioluminescence to hunt prey with. Due to the fact males lack lures to hunt with they instead will parasitically attach themselves to whatever female they are currently mating with and even fuse into its skin causing their bloodstreams to be one in the same. This leaves male anglerfish totally reliant on females to survive. If the female fails to catch prey then both will suffer malnourishment.

Females use their notable bioluminescence in order to hunt prey, due to how deep below the water anglerfish live (2000 meters) it is incredibly dark, so in order to catch prey the anglerfish uses its light to turn itself into a beacon of sorts which draws in unsuspecting animals to be eaten by the anglerfish. The lure they use has an organ at the end of it called the esca which has millions of bacteria in it that produce the light used to draw in prey. The anglerfish is just one in the many fascinating marine animals that can be found around the world and is especially interesting for its unique hunting method and strange form of mating.