Some examples of aquarium animals that will benefit from a tank catered to their needs are Seahorses, Pipefish, Jellyfish, Angler or Frogfish, Scorpionfish, and even Octopuses.

What Is A Species-Specific Aquarium?Ī species-specific aquarium is basically a tank that is set up to meet the specific needs of a unique animal that, in most cases, will not house a large variety of organisms like you might find in a mixed reef aquarium. We are going to step outside the realm of reef-keeping and talk about setting up a species-specific aquarium, which is a great way to successfully keep some of the not-so-common aquarium animals. Albeit tempting, some of these animals are simply not suitable to be thrown into your mixed reef aquarium for a number of reasons.Īggression towards tank-mates, insufficient food sources, competition for space, environmental needs, and even stress levels are all good reasons you may not want to introduce that funky-looking fish from your local fish store into your tank. To make it a hat-trick of surprising finds, the team was shocked to find that the male – which effectively becomes a sperm and nutrient sack for the female once attached – is actually able to move around more than we once thought.īruce Robinson, a deep-sea ecologist from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, said: “There’s no way I would have ever guessed that from a specimen.As you become more and more immersed in the aquarium hobby, you quickly learn that a wide variety of marine animals are actually made available to the general public. It was later revealed to be a Caulophryne jordani, otherwise known as the fanfin angler.Īdding to the importance of the special footage, the creature can be seen to emit bioluminescence from the tips of its long, whisker-like structures on its face that are used to attract prey – this had never been seen before. “It was really a shocker for me.”Īboard the submersible that captured the film was the husband and wife team of Kirsten and Joachim Jakobsen, who had been approaching the end of a five-hour expedition 800m below sea level.Īfter spotting “something with a funny form”, the pair followed the creature for nearly half an hour. “So, you can see how rare and important this discovery is,” Pietsch added. While there are more than 160 known species of anglerfish, this new video is one of only a handful to actually show the fish alive, and this latest one has even more significance. “I’ve been studying these for most of my life and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Ted Pietsch from the University of Washington. Yet now, Science reports that this team has returned the first ever footage of two anglerfish mating in what is certainly one of the most unique rituals in nature.Īs the footage shows, the much smaller male anglerfish is fused to the underside of the female, providing sperm, and will continue to latch on until it dies and its body wastes away.

The rather ugly and strange-looking fish has managed to evade detection for the most part by science, with many of our observed samples coming from ones that washed up on the beach or were found dead and later preserved. One of nature’s strangest fish has been filmed mating for the first time, and researchers are saying it is even more shocking than they thought.Ī team of marine biologists working around Portugal’s Azores islands have witnessed something truly incredible: the mating of two anglerfish.

Hairy angler fish