The mating of monkfish will leave you speechless: its almost a horror movie – InTallaght

When the researchers first discovered, described and classified monkfish in the 19th century, the specimens they were working with were all female. Therefore the experts had no idea how males were made. When they also spotted variants of the opposite sex, they were speechless.

For what reason? Since the distinctive characteristics of the females were missing (the large jaws and their baits). They were also much smaller 6 to 7 millimetres in length. In 1922, the Icelandic biologist Bjarni Saemundsson found an anglerfish with two smaller fish attached to its belly. The researcher was perplexed but assumed she was a mother with her children but she was wrong.

In 1924, Charles Tate Regan, of the British Museum of Natural History, discovered that the children of the anglerfish were nothing more than the much sought after males of the species. Scientists eventually understood the main difference between male and female: males are clearly smaller and do not have large jaws because they do not hunt. The females, in fact, do it for them.

Males, in simple terms, are parasites of females. When he finds his partner, he bites her belly and sticks until the two fish become one. Skins, blood vessels come together, allowing the male to obtain all the nutrients necessary for his survival from his partners blood. In the end, the parts of the body he doesnt need, eyes, fins and some internal organs, atrophy. The male feeds on the female and he, in return, supplies her with the sperm when she is ready to give birth.

Some species, such as Cryptopsaras, can host up to eight males simultaneously; this particular mating ritual not found in all monkfish. In some species, males swim freely and hunt alone for life, and stick to their partner only to procreate.

In short, surely the males will be very faithful.

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The mating of monkfish will leave you speechless: its almost a horror movie - InTallaght

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero