WATERY WEDNESDAY # 13

WATERY WEDNESDAY# 13

We’ve dived deep to the bottom of the ocean floor to find today’s Watery Wednesday animal! We had to look hard to find this fish too because they are masters of camouflage! Are you ready to find this crazy looking fish? Come meet…

MEET THE ANGLERFISH!

Range/Habitat: North Atlantic-Mediterranean-Black Sea

Diet: Carnivore: small fishes

Length/Weight: up to 6 ½ ft/up to 88lbs

Conservation Status: Common

Fun Facts:

• Anglers are also known as the monkfish.
• They have large flat bodies with frills all over.
• Anglers are brownish-green. Their coloration helps them camouflage with the ocean floor.
• Anglers wait in the sand and use a fleshy lure attached to their dorsal (top) fin to attract prey.
• They are ambush predators.
• They have specialized pectoral fins that have “elbows”. They use these to walk along the sea floor.

These strange looking fish have some pretty neat adaptations for surviving in the ocean. How neat is it that they a fishing lure attached to their bodies? They are related to other anglerfish, who live deep in the ocean and can be even stranger looking! Think we need to go diving again!