If you thought everything had the potential to be cute when it was a baby, you'd be wrong.
I scoured the community real quick and found nothing on these bastards. So, despite how adorable "Finding Nemo" was, anglerfish still scare all holy hell out of me.
jesus christ, is it melting!?
The first time I saw a real picture of it in a biology textbook, my legs went numb. I was, literally, scared stiff. The fact that they're small and tend to live in the deeper parts of ocean (although there are many species that live higher up) makes no difference to me. They scare the shit out of me like nothing else.
seriously, are you seeing those teeth, guys?! they're transparent
They tend to grow camouflage appendages that looks like seaweed and other fauna to hide... not to mention, a (sometimes) glowing light at the tip of an appendage on top of their heads, to lure fish into their mouths. No matter the size. You see, they can distend their bellies and jaws to accommodate MUCH large fish. Anything they care to eat.
that's a pot belly to be proud of.
Creepier still is that those of the order cerotioidea have a strange mating format. For the longest while, some scientists thought that there were few to no males, as all they could catch were females with parasites attached to them. Soon, they discovered, the males find that their digestive system fails them as they age. So, they would use their superior olfactory senses, hunt out a female, bite into her side and become a part of her, to sustain life. He soon becomes nothing more than a part of autonomous gonads on her side to fertilize whatever eggs she might want to lay.
fuck! why is it orange!?
And, finally, an anglerfish lookin' all ornery. ... Heaven help you, because I cannot.