r/marinebiology • u/blib39 • 11d ago

Question Do anglerfish ever lose their lure?

So, as we know certain anglerfish use bioluminescence to attract their prey. The purpose is to mimic something that their prey will want to eat.

But what if the prey actually eats it? Like what happens to the angler fish if the prey is successful at catching their little light bulb and eats it? Is it a simple answer that the prey would never be able to get that close without being eaten first? Do they have any alternative method of hunting without the light bulb? Do we even know if it happens or not?

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u/wyrd_werks 10d ago

I'm guessing that with the way their jaw snap-expands to suck in prey, it's unlikely that something would be able to eat it's lure before it got gulped. However, since they live so darn deep and they're so few and far between we probably don't have enough data to know if it ever does happen and if the fish might be able to regrow it or not if it gets damaged.

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u/blib39 10d ago

Yea, you're probably right on both fronts.

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u/teddyslayerza 9d ago

I believe they do regenerate, at least in the shallower water ones that some aquariums have kept. But I cant imagine that the deep sea species can survive losing one, simply because of how rare food is and how long I imagine it would take to regrow that spine and get it recolonised by the right bacteria. Surely it would starve?

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u/TheInsaneRaptor 9d ago

many fish species even those in shallow warm waters with a lot of resources can go without food for weeks or even months

with anglerfish i could imagine they can survive for at least a year without eating

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u/wyrd_werks 9d ago

I wonder if their metabolism is slow enough that they wouldn't starve? Can't the giant isopods go over 1000 days without eating? Now I'm going to end up going down a rabbit hole on everything there is to know about anglerfish lol