Monkfish fish. Lantern fish or monkfish: description and characteristics Fish with luminous bait what is it called
Monkfish fish is a predator from the order of anglerfish. About seven species of this monster are now known. They got their name for their terrifying appearance and method of hunting. The fish is among the top five horrors underwater world and lives in the depths, next to the owners of the bottom - deep-sea stingrays.
Monkfish - photo
Nature generously and eeriely decorated the devil fish. Outwardly, it looks a little like a caricatured huge flounder. Weight can reach 20 kg and up to 2 meters in length. Smooth and slippery, greenish or reddish-brown, the body is completely covered with some kind of growths and warts. Sort of like underwater camouflage. The entire fish, from head to tail, has a leathery fringe. Which, when moving, allows it to practically merge with the algae and makes it invisible. The huge mouth is crescent-shaped and full of sharp, hooked teeth set at an internal angle for easy capture of food.
The anglerfish got its unusual name for its no less unusual way of hunting its smaller underwater brothers. The head has a peculiar process, one of the isolated rays of the front fin, which visually very much resembles a fishing rod. At the end of which there is a sac filled with floating glowing bacteria. The light breaks through the blanket of chromatophores and lures prey like a moth. There are even varieties of these fish with folding fishing rods, glowing body parts and even glowing teeth. A flashlight above the mouth shows the way for the fish: where it needs to swim and be immediately swallowed.
The fish has not only a large mouth, but also a dimensionless stretchable stomach. Sometimes this becomes the cause of their death - the prey is forever too tough for them and simply sharpens it in the mouth, blocking their breathing. However, appearance and method of hunting are not all the oddities of the monkfish fish. It turns out that all these delights are given by nature only to female anglerfish. The male turned out to be a microscopically small Aceratida fish, which has long been considered one of the subspecies and lives at a depth of two hundred meters. Every year, huge females sink to the bottom, where they allow males to literally sink their teeth into their bodies. After a couple of weeks, Aceratida loses its fins as unnecessary, loses its eyes, its intestines stop functioning, and it becomes one with the female. The male now receives all nutrition from the general circulatory system. On the surface, the female lays eggs, which the male moistens with his milk. Having fertilized it, the small fish separates and dies. Ichthyologists can only explain the strange marriage by the fact that at depths it is very difficult for underwater inhabitants to find a partner. So this kind of symbiotic marriage appeared.
Despite the terrifying appearance, gourmets share numerous recipes for preparing various dishes. They especially love it in France. The meat of devil fish is practically boneless, it is white, a little tough. With a peculiar pleasant aftertaste. Cooks use only the carcass and tail, immediately cutting off the eerie head. A fish is just a fish.
Unusual fish live in almost all seas; they are also found in our Barents and Black Seas, although quite rarely.
Monkfish fish is another one most interesting representative underwater fauna of our planet.
They say that the devil is a fictional character... But no! IN sea waters, among the dark depths lives a creature whose appearance is so terrible and ugly that, other than monkfish, scientists have not come up with a name for it!
It is worth saying that in aquatic fauna There is also another monkfish - a mollusk, but now we will talk about a representative of ray-finned fish. Scientists attribute this sea creature to the order Anglerfishes, which includes the family Angleridae and the genus Anglerfish.
Currently, there are two species of monkfish on earth - European and American. Let's look at the photo of the monkfish and take a closer look at its appearance...
Anglerfish appearance
The first thing worth noting about the appearance of this unsightly fish is the “fishing rod”. This is a growth on the head of a monkfish that really looks a lot like a fishing rod. With this device, the fish lures its prey, as if “catching” it. That’s why they gave these fish the name – anglerfish.
The body length of the monkfish is about 2 meters, and the animal weighs almost 20 kilograms. The body has a slightly flattened shape. In general, the anglerfish is not a very pleasant-looking fish. It is all covered with some kind of leathery growths that look similar to driftwood and algae. The head is disproportionately large, the monkfish's mouth and mouth are huge and unpleasant.
The skin color is brown, on the abdominal part of the body it is lighter, almost white.
Where does monkfish live?
The habitat of this fish is considered to be Atlantic Ocean. The anglerfish is found off the coast of Europe, off the coast of Iceland. In addition, monkfish have been found in the waters of the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, North Sea And Barents Sea.
The lifestyle and behavior of monkfish in nature
The depth at which these fish usually live is from 50 to 200 meters. Most often they are found at the very bottom, because there is nothing more pleasant for monkfish than just lying quietly on sand or silt. But it is only at first glance that the angler fish is idle. In fact, this is one of the ways of hunting. The animal freezes, waiting for its prey. And when it swims by, it grabs it and eats it.
The anglerfish also knows how to hunt in another way - with the help of its fins it jumps along the bottom and thus overtakes its prey.
What do sea devils eat?
Mainly, other, usually smaller, fish serve as food for these fish. The monkfish menu consists of Katrans, Silversides, Kalkans, Stingrays and others.
The gadget on the head in the form of a luminous fishing rod attracts small fish and brings them straight... into the mouth of the angler. How do angler fish reproduce?
When do these fish start mating season, they descend to depths of up to 2000 meters to lay eggs there. One female monkfish is capable of laying a clutch of about three million eggs. The entire accumulation of eggs forms a wide ten-meter ribbon, which is divided into hexagonal cells.
After a certain period of time, these honeycomb-shaped cells are destroyed. Freeing the eggs, which in turn float freely, being carried by the underwater current.
After a few days, small larvae are born from the eggs, which, after 4 months, become anglerfish fry. After the fry grow up to 6 centimeters in length, they sink to the bottom in shallow water.
Enemies of monkfish
This area of monkfish life has so far been little studied.
Is the anglerfish a danger to people?
In fact, monkfish do not have the habit of attacking humans. But if you accidentally stab your foot on an anglerfish spike, you can get hurt. In addition, the monkfish does not like “intrusive visitors” and can show all the sharpness of its teeth to those who are very zealously trying to get to know it!
European anglerfish, or European angler(lat. Lophius piscatorius) - predatory fish order of anglerfish. This species received the name “monkfish” because of its very unattractive appearance.
Fish edible. The meat is white, dense, boneless. Monkfish is especially popular in France.
Body length is up to 2 meters, more often 1-1.5 meters. Weight - up to 20 kilograms or more. The body of the anglerfish is naked, covered with numerous leathery outgrowths and bony tubercles. On both sides of the head, along the edge of the jaw and lips, there are fringed pieces of skin hanging down, moving in the water like algae, which makes it barely noticeable on the ground.
The body is flattened, compressed in the dorso-abdominal direction. The head is flat, wide, flattened at the top, making up approximately two-thirds of the length of the entire body. The mouth is large, in the shape of a semicircle with a protruding lower jaw and sharp, hooked teeth. The eyes are small. The gill openings look like two small slits located just behind the pectoral fins. Soft skin without scales; numerous skin fringes along the edge of the body.
The anterior dorsal fin consists of six rays, the first three rays being separate. The very first ray of the dorsal fin is transformed into a “fishing rod” (illicium) with a luminous “flashlight” (eska) at the end. The length of the illicium reaches 25% of the body length. The second dorsal fin (10-13) and anal (9-11 soft rays) fin are located opposite each other. The pectoral fins are greatly enlarged and widened at the end. They can perform rotational movements, which allows the fish to crawl along the bottom. Pelvic fins located on the throat.
Coloring; the back is brownish, greenish-brown or reddish, with dark spots. The ventral side is white, except for the black posterior edge of the pectoral fins.
Distributed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Europe from Iceland and the Barents Sea to the Gulf of Guinea and the Black Sea, the North Sea, the English Channel, and the Baltic Sea. It lives at a depth of 18–550 m.
Typical bottom dwellers, usually found on a sandy and muddy bottom, sometimes half-buried in it, as well as among algae and between rock fragments.
The main diet is fish. Capable of crawling and even “jumping” with the help of its arm-like pectoral fins. Most often, the monkfish lies motionless on the bottom. He is able to hold his breath for several minutes. Merging with the bottom, the monkfish lures prey to itself with an eska bait. When the prey swims up to the hunter, the angler opens its mouth in a split second and sucks in water along with the victim.
Spawning occurs in late winter and spring (at a depth of up to 180 m). The eggs are spawned by females in the form of a gelatinous strip up to 9 m long and 90 cm wide. Young fish transition to bottom life at a length of 5-6 cm.
Let's start with the fact that anglers spend their entire “conscious” lives at a depth of about 3000 meters, and the road sunlight it's closed there. Due to this, they have black or dark brown skin, so they are not visible there at all.
Their appearance can frighten any impressionable person. For such deep sea fish characterized by a spherical body shape, most which the head occupies. In addition to this, it has a huge mouth with terrifying razor-sharp teeth. Females are especially terrible.
The size of females can reach 1 meter, and males have a length of no more than 4 cm. Sometimes the difference in size can be incredible. Thus, on one female 119 cm long and weighing 7 kg, 3 males were found, each measuring 16-20 mm and weighing 14-22 mg. How they ended up on it, you will find out a little below.
Anglerfish are distinguished by pronounced sexual dimorphism, i.e. females are many times larger than males and are predators. While males lead a modest lifestyle and feed on tiny crustaceans, zooplankton and other small things, females hunt big.
These fish are very voracious. Their stomach can stretch to incredible sizes. So the female can swallow a prey many times larger than herself. As a result of such greed, she dies, since she cannot release it due to the peculiar structure of her teeth.
This fish got its name thanks to the “fishing rod with bait,” which is a process on the head of females. Scientists call it illicium. It was formed from the first ray of the fish's dorsal fin. And it is different for each species. For example, in Ceratias holboelli the process extends and retracts. This predator throws its bait further away and with small jerks lures the future meal directly into its mouth. And then the fish just has to open it more and close it in time.
At the tip of this process there is a small pouch that glows in the dark. It is filled with mucus containing bioluminescent bacteria. By regulating the flow of blood and oxygen to the pouch, the fish controls the brightness of the “light bulb”. In some species it is located directly in the mouth. This eliminates the need to “fish with a bait.” The prey itself swims into the predator's mouth.
Monkfish is a predatory fish of the order Anglerfishes. This species received the name “monkfish” because of its very unattractive appearance. The fish is edible. The meat is white, dense, boneless. Monkfish is especially popular in France.
Whatever they call them - both monkfish and sea scorpions, and anglerfish, and European anglerfish. However, there are also several varieties of this miracle fish. And in terms of originality of appearance, each of the types is not inferior to each other. People have never seen devils, but the sea monsters that have risen from the depths resemble creatures from the underworld.
It is worth saying that in the aquatic fauna there is another monkfish - the mollusk, but now we will talk specifically about the representative of ray-finned fish.
In fact, it's simple sea fish- a predator fish with an amazing, unlike anything else appearance. These fish belong to the ray-finned fish, to the order Anglerfishes, to the family Anglerfishes, to the genus Anglerfishes. Now in the watery depths of the earth there are two varieties of monkfish.
Appearance
When you first look at this creature, a remarkable organ immediately catches your eye - the “fishing rod”. The modified fin really resembles a fishing rod with a luminous float. This ugly monster, sometimes reaching up to two meters in length and 30-40 kilograms, can itself regulate the glow of its float. But there is nothing supernatural about this. In fact, the float is a kind of skin formation, in the folds of which amazing bacteria live. In the presence of oxygen, which they draw from the blood of the anglerfish, they glow. But if the monkfish just had lunch and lay down to take a nap, he does not need a glowing flashlight, and it blocks the access of blood to the fin-fishing rod, and the float goes out until the start of a new hunt.
The entire appearance of the monkfish reveals that it is a resident depths of the sea. Elongated body, with an unnatural big head, everything is covered with some kind of growths, vaguely reminiscent of either algae, or tree bark, or some kind of twigs and snags.
The body length of the monkfish is about 2 meters, and the animal weighs almost 20 kilograms. The body has a slightly flattened shape. In general, the anglerfish is not a very pleasant-looking fish. It is all covered with some kind of leathery growths that look similar to driftwood and algae. The head is disproportionately large, the monkfish's mouth and mouth are huge and unpleasant.
Habitat
The habitat of this fish is considered to be the Atlantic Ocean. The anglerfish is found off the coast of Europe, off the coast of Iceland. In addition, monkfish have been found in the waters of the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, North Sea and Barents Sea.
The depth at which these fish usually live is from 50 to 200 meters. Most often they are found at the very bottom, because there is nothing more pleasant for monkfish than just lying quietly on sand or silt. But it is only at first glance that the angler fish is idle. In fact, this is one of the ways of hunting. The animal freezes, waiting for its prey. And when it swims by, it grabs it and eats it.
Nutrition
Mainly, other, usually smaller, fish serve as food for these fish. The monkfish menu consists of Katrans, Silversides, Kalkans, Stingrays and others.
In general, the monkfish is incredibly voracious and therefore boldly rushes even at a seemingly obviously unattainable goal. And in “hungry” moments, a large anglerfish, suffering from an almost complete lack of vision, rises to the upper layers of water from the depths and at such moments it is capable of attacking scuba divers. You can meet such an inhabitant of the deep sea just at the end of summer, after a grueling hungry spawning, the “devils” go to shallow water, where they eat intensively until the fall, after which they go to wintering in greater depths.
However, compared to sharks, barracudas and octopuses, true sea devils or anglerfish do not pose an immediate danger to humans. Be that as it may, their terrible teeth can disfigure the hand of an unwary fisherman for life. However, the monkfish does much more damage not to humans, but to others commercial species fish Thus, there are legends among fishermen that, having fallen into a fishing net, he ate the fish that got there while he was there.
Reproduction
Male and female anglerfish are so different in appearance and size that until some time experts classified them into different classes. The breeding of monkfish is as special as its appearance and hunting method.
The male anglerfish is several times smaller in size than the female. To fertilize the eggs, he needs to find his chosen one and not lose sight of her. To do this, males simply bite into the female’s body. The structure of the teeth does not allow them to free themselves, and they do not want to.
Over time, the female and male grow together, forming a single organism with a common body. Some of the “husband’s” organs and systems atrophy. He no longer needs eyes, fins, or a stomach. Nutrients come through the blood vessels from the “wife’s” body. The male only has to fertilize the eggs at the right moment.
They are usually spawned by the female in the spring. Fertility anglerfish quite high. On average, a female lays up to 1 million eggs. This occurs at depth and looks like a long (up to 10 m) and wide (up to 0.5 m) ribbon. The female can carry several “husbands” on her body so that they fertilize a large number of eggs at the right time.
It should be noted that a female monkfish can simultaneously lay a clutch of about three million eggs. After some time, the eggs are released and travel on their own in sea waters. Turning into larvae, they live closer to the surface of the water for up to four months, and only when they reach a length of 6-8 cm do they sink to the bottom.
Angler unable to compare the feeling of hunger with the size of the prey. There is evidence of an angler catching a fish larger than itself, but being unable to release it due to the structure of its teeth. It happens that a monkfish catches a waterfowl and choke on its feathers, which leads to its death.
Monkfish in cooking
Monkfish is suitable both for frying in pieces and for frying in layers on the grill, or cut into cubes and placed on skewers on the grill. Monkfish is boiled and stewed. The fish is especially popular in France, where the meat of its tail is prepared in many ways, for example with blackcurrant jam or sweet potato, and the head of the devil is used for rich, fatty, multi-spiced soup.
Monkfish meat is highly prized in Japan. Not only meat is eaten, but also liver, fins, skin and stomach.
The Chinese prefer to cook monkfish in a wok. The fillets are fried in oil with rice vinegar and soy sauce, sprinkled with ginger and chili. Then the wok is removed from the heat, the fish is covered with coriander and green onions, mixed, and served with rice. Everyone who has tried this dish finds it slightly smoky. It's all a play on spices and the characteristics of the wok. The fish turns out tender and very juicy thanks to quick frying.
In America, monkfish is cooked mainly on the grill. The fish is cut into pieces along with the skin and vertebral bone. Marinate with salt, olive oil and rosemary. The oil envelops the pieces of fish and prevents them from drying out. Monkfish is served with grilled vegetables, seasoned with lemon juice and olive oil.
In America, they prepare carrot puree with monkfish fillet meatballs. The carrots are boiled until soft, then simmered in heavy cream, chopped with the addition of coriander and salt. The monkfish fillet is crushed, mixed with salt and spices, and formed into meatballs the size of Walnut, boil them for a couple. The puree is served in deep plates, with a dozen meatballs placed in each and sprinkled with fresh herbs.
In Korea, the national dish He is made from monkfish and a sweet-spicy soup is cooked, to which they add a lot of vegetables and fried monkfish (fillet) in batter. Monkfish meat, seasoned with hot spices, is placed in rice dough (pancakes) and fried in large quantities oils Serve fish with soy sauce.
In gourmet restaurants in a number of countries you can find dishes where monkfish is presented in the following form. The fish is fried and served, doused with sweet and sour sauce, poached fish is served with lemon and lemon zest, as well as poached and served with parsley or spinach sauce with cheese. The fish is fried with chili pepper, smoked paprika and ginger, simmered in white wine, cream sauce, milk, baked with tomatoes, fried, strung on rosemary sprigs.
Monkfish is baked in the form of a roll. The fillet is laid out in a layer on film, the filling is placed on top, for example broccoli, and rolled up. The ends of the film are tied, the roll in this form is lowered into water and the fish is boiled for 10 minutes at a temperature not exceeding 86`C. With this method, the fillet remains soft and juicy, but holds its shape perfectly. The fish is served with creamy sauce and potato medallions fried in oil.
Monkfish are not often available for free sale, because... already mentioned above, the fish is under state protection and its catch is limited. Unfrozen monkfish can be found in large hypermarkets at a very high price during a certain season or on the market from private sellers (this is in Europe and America). The rest of the time, if fish is sold, it is frozen, but its price is just as high - 20 euros per 1 kg.
