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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Animalias Stupendium. My name is Algomandanes Wizard to

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Speaker 2: the four crowds. I checked inventor of the enchantomatic and

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Speaker 2: tireless creature Chronicler. However, mere monsters hold no mystery for me.

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Speaker 2: These days, borogs are boring, lindworms are lackluster. Instead, I

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Speaker 2: turn my attention once more to the strange fauna of

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Speaker 2: a land called Earth. Travel with me, gentle reader, as

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Speaker 2: we consider the amazing courtship of the deep sea anglerfish

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Speaker 2: common name anglerfish.

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Speaker 3: Scientific classification multiple species of the teleost order lopoformes, frequency

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Speaker 3: and range deep sea environments worldwide in tropical to temperate latitudes,

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Speaker 3: size up to four feet or one point two meters,

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Speaker 3: diet crustaceans and small fish treasure Horde male breeding Partners

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Speaker 3: Challenge rating three.

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Speaker 2: To be sure, there is no singular deep sea angler fish.

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Speaker 2: In fact, there are more than two hundred known species.

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Speaker 2: This includes the sea toads or coffin fish, as well

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Speaker 2: as the black sea devils, among many others. These outrageous names,

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Speaker 2: of course, dim from the sometimes froglike and sometimes frightening

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Speaker 2: appearance of these bony fish. Meals can be scarce in

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Speaker 2: the deep ocean, and so many species boast adaptations to

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Speaker 2: help them eat any suitable prey they might encounter. This

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Speaker 2: includes large mouths, large stomachs, and long needlelike translucent teeth

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Speaker 2: piercing damage. The anglerfish can also depress its long teeth

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Speaker 2: at will to allow unobstructed travel down the predator's throat,

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Speaker 2: and can likewise be raised again like the bars of

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Speaker 2: a cage, to prevent engulf prey from escaping. Anglerfish are

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Speaker 2: ambush predators, and their name comes from the bioluminescent lure appendage,

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Speaker 2: a modified ray fin that they can unsheathe to lure

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Speaker 2: prey into gobbling range, so much like a glowing wizard's

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Speaker 2: wand the lure is actually powered by symbiant photobacteria, which

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Speaker 2: reside in the lure by the millions. How they first

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Speaker 2: acquire the bacteria long remained an open question, with scientists

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Speaker 2: unsure if developing anglerfish encounter them in the open ocean

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Speaker 2: or are inoculated with them by apparent during spawning, but

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Speaker 2: some recent research points more toward the former. Either way,

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Speaker 2: it would appear to be a mutually beneficial relationship, as

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Speaker 2: the bacteria benefit from protection and nutrients as the angler

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Speaker 2: moves throughout its environment. But to day or to day

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Speaker 2: is Valentine's Day, so we must speak the love language

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Speaker 2: of the anglerfish. Mating check.

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Speaker 3: Again.

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Speaker 2: There are numerous anglerfish species to consider, but many species

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Speaker 2: boast extreme sexual dimorphism. The female is larger and fiercer

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Speaker 2: by a considerable margin, and the male's main purpose is

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Speaker 2: to provide sperm for sexual reproduction. For black sea devils,

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Speaker 2: the male is free swimming but doesn't even feed as

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Speaker 2: an adult. In other species, the small male is parasitic

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Speaker 2: in nature, attaching to the female's body and fusing with her. See.

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Speaker 2: Just as prey encounters and the deep ocean are rare,

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Speaker 2: so two are mating matches. The miniature males put all

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Speaker 2: their effort into seeking out and finding a potential mate,

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Speaker 2: and then in some species attach themselves initially via a

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Speaker 2: byte and eventually become a grafted on reproductive organ such devotion.

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Speaker 2: In some species, a female may acquire multiple parasitic males.

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Speaker 2: These males continue to live, but become entirely dependent on

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Speaker 2: the females for nutrients and blood. The upside for her

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Speaker 2: is they don't take up much space, They require comparably

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Speaker 2: little nourishment, and are ready to provide sperm whenever she

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Speaker 2: is ready to reproduce. Their reproduction, by the way, is

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Speaker 2: carried out externally via spawning. The female releases her eggs,

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Speaker 2: the males release their sperm, and the fertilized eggs drift

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Speaker 2: off in the water column. The males remain and are

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Speaker 2: ready to help out the next time around as well.

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Speaker 2: There are more mysteries concerning the angler fish to consider,

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Speaker 2: but for now I must retire my wizard's quill and

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Speaker 2: allow my familiars some respite. But I shall return with

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Speaker 2: even more wonders of the natural world. Hi, this is

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Speaker 2: Robert Lamb. Thanks again to the Wizard Argo Mandanese for

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Speaker 2: joining us in this episode. Sources for this episode included

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Speaker 2: Oshana dot Org, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Emily Osterroloft's The

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Speaker 2: Bizarre Love Life of the Anglerfish, published on the website

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Speaker 2: of the Natural History Museum, London, LK Wards Meet the

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Speaker 2: tiny bacteria that give anglerfishes their spooky glow, published twenty

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Speaker 2: sixteen on Smithsonian's Ocean and Krishna Ramanaja's study eliminates link

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Speaker 2: between anglerfish Bacteria, published twenty nineteen on the Cornell Chronicle.

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Speaker 2: Thanks as always to the excellent JJ Possway for producing

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Speaker 2: this episode, and if you wish to contact Agromandanese with

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Speaker 2: recommendations for future episodes, you can send an email to

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Speaker 2: contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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