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Unusual Mating Habit of Anglerfish
Extreme water pressures, lack of sunlight and turbulent water make some deep sea fish come up with strange shapes and behaviors to survive. Anglerfish is famed for its luminescent spine, acting like a bait to "fish" its prey. However, individuals are locally rare and encounters doubly so, finding a mate is problematic. When scientists first started capturing anglerfish, they noticed that all of the specimens were females. These were a few inches in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them.It turns out, these "parasites" are the remains of male anglerfish! At birth, male anglerfish are already equipped with extremely well developed sensory organs that detect scents in the water. They have no digestive system, and thus are unable to feed independently. They must find a female anglerfish, and quickly, or else they will die.
The sensitive organs help the male to detect the pheromones that signal the proximity of a female anglerfish. When he finds a female, he bites into her flank, and releases an enzyme which digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood vessel level. The male then atrophies into nothing more than a pair of gonads that release sperm in response to hormones in the female's bloodstream indicating egg release.
This is an extreme example of sexual dimorphism. However, it ensures that when the female is ready to spawn, she has a mate immediately available.
The sensitive organs help the male to detect the pheromones that signal the proximity of a female anglerfish. When he finds a female, he bites into her flank, and releases an enzyme which digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood vessel level. The male then atrophies into nothing more than a pair of gonads that release sperm in response to hormones in the female's bloodstream indicating egg release.
This is an extreme example of sexual dimorphism. However, it ensures that when the female is ready to spawn, she has a mate immediately available.
(Photo: David Paul/Mark Norman, ACF)
16 thoughts:
Now that has to be the most random post I have ever read. You have a great knack for making things relevant and interesting. Well done!
O_O
I’ve never felt so dirty after reading an article before…but now I do.
Very educational… this is some brilliant research!
I feel bad for the male fish lol. I want to add you to my blogroll at http://www.gringodownsouth.blogspot.com/ I know it's waaay different than your blog but check it out and let me know what you think, then add me too.
Yeah, I saw that on Animal Planet's Most Extreme once and while the little guy thought it was way cool, mama was stuck between wanting to gag and wanting to cheer for the female for getting rid of the male in such a great way! LMAO
Who said women are only good for cooking and reproduction?…(LOL) , Can't live with them cant live without them… Males are just pitiful without woman and this fish is an excellent example for that.
The more I learn about the natural world, the more amazed I get by the sheer diversity of life that exists.
Hi Ilker,
Another strange ritual for you to think about: why you don't open a blogroll yourself so we can add some reciprocal Linky Love?
I'm trying so hard not to say this... I have to. Isn't this what women say these days -- that men are only useful for reproduction? The rest of the time they just mooch off of you. That's not my point of view, but I couldn't go without mentioning it. It was just too easy! Talk about bizarre! Thank you, Ilker, for sharing this ocean tidbit!
The male then atrophies into nothing more than a pair of gonads
Even Hallmark can't make a greeting card to find the silver lining in this one. Yeesh
Ah-hahahaha!
Oh how I wish I could come up with something witty to say about this, but all I could do was laugh for a couple of minutes.
I heard this somewhere before, but thank you for posting it. Random, yes. But it made my day.
I've always been amazed at how utterly different we humans are in comparison to a lot of species in the animal kingdom. Nature is littered with cases where the male is actually the weakling sex of a particular species or is to some extent at the mercy of the female sex, yet in our society and in much of the ape and monkey world this is completely the opposite. Look at Praying Mantii (is that the correct form of the plural?), or even at spiders, this angler fish deal, etc. Even many types of reptiles have males that are significantly smaller than the female. It might be interesting to research just how much more powerful the female sex is in the animal world in comparison to our world...
omg!! this message thingy is so sweet i never new that male aanglerfish were so messed up lol, but now i know and probally same with men well ty.(lol)
These fish have dazled me since I was little and still do today. After reading this, I can say that I have learned something new.
That's interesting...
how you copy and pasted from wikipedia!
I think it was very interesting, it was not form wikipedia that website isn't all true, but i want to know more like how long the females live for, do the men end up running out of sperm and when, how many men does a female angler fish have in her lifetime and etc
What do you think? Post your thoughts..