Least ConcernBlack Angler
Antennarius pictus
62 countries14 parks196 dive sites
Species group · Bony fish
WAnimals has 3 species of angler, spread across 3 families (Antennariidae, Lophiidae, Melanocetidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 3.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 171 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
Its strike is the fastest documented in any fish: it opens its mouth and sucks in the prey in about six thousandths of a second, a movement impossible to see with the naked eye.
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It walks over the bottom on its pectoral and pelvic fins, which are modified into jointed, leg-like limbs.
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It can swallow prey twice its own size thanks to an extremely distensible stomach, and it is not unusual for it to devour another frogfish.
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The first ray of its dorsal fin has become a rod with a fleshy lure at the tip, the illicium, which it waves to mimic a small animal.
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It engulfs its prey by opening its mouth all at once: the water rushes in so fast that it drags the prey inside before it can react.
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It can swallow prey almost as large as itself, and diving seabirds have been found in its stomach.
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The female fishes with a glowing lure; the male is a tenth her size and does not hunt.
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The males, far smaller than the females, attach to them only temporarily to mate, without fusing.
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