The most dangerous fish. Rare fish in the depths of the sea Strange species of fish

In the depths of the sea and ocean there is great amount all kinds of creatures that amaze with their sophisticated defense mechanisms, ability to adapt, and, of course, their appearance. This is a whole universe that has not yet been fully explored. In this rating, we have collected the most unusual representatives of the depths, from beautifully colored fish to creepy monsters.

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Our rating of the most unusual inhabitants of the depths opens with the dangerous and at the same time amazing lion fish, also known as the striped lionfish or zebra fish. This cute creature, about 30 centimeters long, spends most of its time among the corals in a motionless state, and only from time to time swims from one place to another. Thanks to its beautiful and unusual coloring, as well as long fan-shaped pectoral and dorsal fins, this fish attracts the attention of both people and marine life.

However, behind the beauty of the color and shape of its fins are hidden sharp and poisonous needles, with which it protects itself from enemies. The lion fish itself does not attack first, but if a person accidentally touches it or steps on it, then one prick from such a needle will cause his health to deteriorate sharply. If there are several injections, then the person will need outside help to swim to the shore, as the pain can become unbearable and lead to loss of consciousness.

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This is a small marine bony fish of the pipefish family of the order Pipefish. Seahorses lead a sedentary lifestyle; they attach their flexible tails to stems, and thanks to numerous spines, outgrowths on the body and iridescent colors, they completely blend into the background. This is how they protect themselves from predators and camouflage themselves while hunting for food. Skates feed on small crustaceans and shrimp. The tubular stigma acts like a pipette - the prey is drawn into the mouth along with water.

The body of seahorses in water is located unconventionally for fish - vertically or diagonally. The reason for this is the relatively large swim bladder, most of which is located in the upper part of the seahorse's body. The difference between seahorses and other species is that their offspring are carried by the male. On its abdomen it has a special brood chamber in the form of a sac, which plays the role of a uterus. Seahorses are very fertile animals, and the number of embryos borne in a male’s pouch ranges from 2 to several thousand. Childbirth for a male is often painful and can result in death.

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This representative of the depths is a relative of the previous participant in the rating - the seahorse. The leafy sea dragon, ragfish or sea pegasus is an unusual fish, so named for its fantastic appearance - translucent delicate greenish fins cover its body and constantly sway with the movement of the water. Although these processes look like fins, they do not take part in swimming, but serve only for camouflage. The length of this creature reaches 35 centimeters, and it lives in only one place - at southern shores Australia. The rag picker swims slowly, its maximum speed is up to 150 m/h. Just like seahorses, the offspring are carried by males in a special pouch formed during spawning along the lower surface of the tail. The female lays eggs in this pouch and all care of the offspring falls on the father.

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The frilled shark is a species of shark that looks much more like a strange sea snake or eel. Since the Jurassic period, the frilled predator has not changed at all over millions of years of existence. It got its name from the presence of a brown formation on its body, which resembles a cape. It is also called the corrugated shark due to the numerous folds of skin on its body. Such peculiar folds on its skin, according to scientists, are a reserve of body volume to accommodate large prey in the stomach.

After all, the frilled shark swallows its prey mainly whole, since the needle-like tips of its teeth curved inside the mouth are not capable of crushing and grinding food. The frilled shark lives in the bottom layer of water in all oceans except the Arctic Ocean, at a depth of 400-1200 meters; it is a typical deep-sea predator. The frilled shark can reach 2 meters in length, but the usual sizes are smaller - 1.5 meters for females and 1.3 meters for males. This species lays eggs: the female gives birth to 3-12 young. Gestation of embryos can last up to two years.

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This species of crustacean from the infraorder of crabs is one of the largest representatives of arthropods: large individuals reach 20 kilograms, 45 centimeters in carapace length and 4 m in the span of the first pair of legs. It lives mainly in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan at a depth of 50 to 300 meters. It feeds on shellfish and leftovers and is believed to live up to 100 years. The survival rate among the larvae is very small, so females spawn more than 1.5 million of them. During the process of evolution, the front two legs turned into large claws that can reach a length of 40 centimeters. Despite such a formidable weapon, the Japanese spider crab is non-aggressive and has a calm character. It is even used in aquariums as an ornamental animal.

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These large deep-sea crayfish can grow more than 50 cm in length. The largest recorded specimen weighed 1.7 kilograms and was 76 centimeters long. Their body is covered with hard plates that are softly connected to each other. This armor design provides good mobility, so giant isopods can curl up into a ball when they sense danger. Rigid plates reliably protect the crayfish’s body from deep-sea predators. Quite often they are found in Blackpool, England, and they are not uncommon in other places on the planet. These animals live at depths from 170 to 2,500 m. Most of the entire population prefers to be kept at a depth of 360-750 meters.

They prefer to live on the clay bottom alone. Isopods are carnivorous and can hunt for slow prey on the bottom - sea cucumbers, sponges, and possibly small fish. They also do not disdain carrion, which sinks to the seabed from the surface. Because the food is so great depth not always enough, and finding it in pitch darkness is not an easy task; isopods have adapted to do without food for a long time. It is known for sure that cancer is capable of fasting for 8 weeks in a row.

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The purple tremoctopus or blanket octopus is a very unusual octopus. Although, octopuses are generally strange creatures - they have three hearts, poisonous saliva, the ability to change the color and texture of their skin, and their tentacles are able to perform certain actions without instructions from the brain. However, the purple tremoctopus is the strangest of them all. For starters, we can say that the female is 40,000 times heavier than the male! The male is only 2.4 centimeters long and lives almost like plankton, while the female reaches 2 m in length. When the female is frightened, she can expand the cape-like membrane located between the tentacles, which visually increases her size and makes her look even more dangerous. It is also interesting that the blanket octopus is immune to the venom of the Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish; Moreover, the intelligent octopus sometimes tears off the jellyfish's tentacles and uses them as weapons.

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The blobfish is a deep-sea bottom-dwelling marine fish of the psycholute family, which, due to its unattractive appearance, is often called one of the most terrible fish on the planet. These fish supposedly live at depths of 600-1200 m off the coast of Australia and Tasmania, where they are found Lately Fishermen began to increasingly reach the surface, which is why this species of fish is endangered. The blobfish consists of a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than the density of water itself. This allows the blobfish to swim at such depths without expending large quantities.

Lack of muscles is not a problem for this fish. She swallows almost everything edible that floats in front of her, lazily opening her mouth. It feeds mainly on mollusks and crustaceans. Even though the blobfish is not edible, it is endangered. Fishermen, in turn, sell this fish as a souvenir. Blobfish populations are recovering slowly. It takes 4.5 to 14 years for the blobfish population to double.

7 Sea urchin

Sea urchins are very ancient animals of the echinoderm class that inhabited the Earth already 500 million years ago. Currently, about 940 modern species of sea urchins are known. The body size of a sea urchin varies from 2 to 30 centimeters and is covered with rows of calcareous plates that form a dense shell. According to body shape sea ​​urchins divided into correct and incorrect. U the right hedgehogs body shape is almost round. Irregular hedgehogs have a flattened body shape, and the anterior and posterior ends of the body are distinguishable. Spines of various lengths are movably connected to the shell of sea urchins. The length ranges from 2 millimeters to 30 centimeters. Spines often serve sea urchins for movement, nutrition and protection.

Some species that are distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans have poisonous needles. Sea urchins are bottom crawling or burrowing animals that typically live at depths of about 7 meters and are widespread on coral reefs. Sometimes some individuals can crawl onto. Correct sea urchins prefer rocky surfaces; incorrect - soft and sandy soil. Hedgehogs reach sexual maturity in the third year of life, and live about 10-15 years, up to a maximum of 35.

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Largemouth lives in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans at depths from 500 to 3000 meters. The body of the largemouth is long and narrow, in appearance it resembles an eel 60 cm, sometimes up to 1 meter. Due to the giant stretching mouth, reminiscent of the beak bag of a pelican, it has a second name - pelican fish. The length of the mouth is almost 1/3 of the total length of the body, the rest is a thin body, turning into a tail filament, at the end of which there is a luminous organ. The largemouth does not have scales, a swim bladder, ribs, an anal fin or a full-fledged bone skeleton.

Their skeleton consists of several deformed bones and light cartilage. Therefore, these fish are quite light. They have a tiny skull and small eyes. Due to poorly developed fins, these fish cannot swim quickly. Due to the size of its mouth, this fish is capable of swallowing prey that is larger than itself. The swallowed victim ends up in the stomach, which can stretch to enormous sizes. The pelican fish feeds on other deep-sea fish and crustaceans that can be found at such depths.

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The sac-eater or black eater is a deep-sea representative of perciformes from the suborder chiasmodidae, living at depths from 700 to 3000 meters. This fish grows up to 30 centimeters in length and is found throughout tropical and subtropical waters. This fish got its name from its ability to swallow prey several times its size. This is possible due to the very elastic stomach and the absence of ribs. A bagworm can easily swallow fish 4 times longer and 10 times heavier than its body.

This fish has very large jaws, and on each of them the front three teeth form sharp fangs, with which it holds the victim when it pushes it into its stomach. As the prey decomposes, a lot of gas is released inside the bagworm's stomach, which brings the fish to the surface, where some black gobblers have been found with swollen bellies. It is not possible to observe the animal in its natural habitat, so very little is known about its life.

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This lizard-headed creature belongs to the deep-sea lizard-heads that live in the tropical and subtropical seas of the world, at depths from 600 to 3500 meters. Its length reaches 50-65 centimeters. Outwardly, it is very reminiscent of long-extinct dinosaurs in a reduced form. It is considered the deepest sea predator, devouring everything that comes in its way. Bathysaurus even has teeth on its tongue. At such a depth, it is quite difficult for this predator to find a mate, but this is not a problem for it, since the bathysaurus is a hermaphrodite, that is, it has both male and female sexual characteristics.

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The smallmouth macropinna, or barrel eye, is a species of deep-sea fish, the only representative of the genus macropinna, which belongs to the order Smeltfish. These amazing fish have a transparent head through which they can watch their prey with their tubular eyes. It was discovered in 1939, and lives at a depth of 500 to 800 meters, and therefore has not been well studied. Fish in their normal habitat are usually motionless, or move slowly in a horizontal position.

Previously, the principle of operation of the eyes was not clear, since the fish’s olfactory organs are located above the mouth, and the eyes are located inside the transparent head and can only look up. The green color of the eyes of this fish is caused by the presence of a specific yellow pigment in them. It is believed that this pigment provides special filtering of light coming from above and reduces its brightness, which allows the fish to discern the bioluminescence of potential prey.

In 2009, scientists found that thanks to the special structure of the eye muscles, these fish are able to move their cylindrical eyes from the vertical position in which they are usually located, to the horizontal position when they are directed forward. In this case, the mouth is in the field of view, which provides an opportunity to capture prey. Zooplankton of various sizes, including small cnidarians and crustaceans, as well as siphonophore tentacles along with cnidocytes were found in the macropinna vein. Taking this into account, we can come to the conclusion that the continuous transparent membrane above the eyes of this species evolved evolutionarily as a way of protecting cnidarians from cnidocytes.

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The first place in our ranking of the most unusual inhabitants of the depths was taken by a deep-sea monster called an anglerfish or devil fish. These scary and unusual fish live at great depths, from 1500 to 3000 meters. They are characterized by a spherical, laterally flattened body shape and the presence of a “fishing rod” in females. The skin is black or dark brown, naked; in several species it is covered with transformed scales - spines and plaques; ventral fins are absent. There are 11 known families, including almost 120 species.

The anglerfish is a predatory sea fish. Hunt other residents underwater world it is helped by a special growth on its back - one feather from the dorsal fin separated from the others during evolution, and a transparent sac formed at its end. In this sac, which is actually a gland with liquid, surprisingly, there are bacteria. They may or may not glow, obeying their master in this matter. The anglerfish regulates the luminosity of bacteria by dilating or constricting blood vessels. Some members of the anglerfish family adapt even more sophisticatedly, acquiring a folding fishing rod or growing one right in their mouth, while others have glowing teeth.

Today, about 30 thousand species of fish have been discovered and described. Some of them boast such an unusual appearance that it is hard to believe that they are really fish. Some other representatives of these aquatic vertebrates are so rare that very little is known about them.

The most unusual and rare fish are often found at great depths (sometimes 300-500 meters underwater) and never rise close to the surface. The underwater world is still fraught with many secrets, many of which we have yet to uncover.

The rarest fish

Blind fish climbing on rocks

Found in the subtropical regions of Thailand, the cave fish species Cryptotora thamicola lost vision and pigmentation during evolution. But this is not its only feature. This strange fish has adapted to fast cave currents: it can climb vertical surfaces.

The rough, sticky undersurface of its large fins allows the fish to climb and stay on slippery rocks in fast currents and even climb under waterfalls!

Rare fish of the world

Catfish that lives without water

Quite a rare and little-studied fish from the order Catfish- the only known fish that can live without water. It is enough for her to glide along the wet surface of leaves on the banks of streams and rivers.

This slippery fish is somewhat reminiscent of a worm; it has no eyes, apparently because it spends most of its time underground. Nothing more is known about her.

Sole

Fishes from the squad Flounder(lat. Pleuronectiformes) - representatives of very strange vertebrates. Although they are born as completely normal fish, their skulls gradually become deformed as they age until both eyes are on the same plane. This feature allows the fish to acquire a flat body and skillfully camouflage itself on the seabed.

Fish sea ​​tongues families Cynoglossaceae they went even further: they completely lost their pectoral fins and developed a smooth, teardrop-shaped body. Many species have an arched mouth.

Rare fish species

Sea devils

Fish monkfish families Thaumatichthaceae boast one of the strangest appearances in the animal kingdom. The upper jaw of these fish is often several times larger than the lower jaw; it is also capable of folding in half, allowing the fish to more easily suck prey into the throat. Each member of the family has a luminescent prey lure protruding directly above its mouth.

Long probe from the order of monkfish, they have a very long bait, which can be 10 times longer than the body of the fish itself. It is interesting that all these creatures swim upside down, but none of the scientists can really say why.

Another family of monkfish - Pipistrelles- resemble the offspring of a turtle and a chicken. These fish have adapted to move along the seabed using their fins, which are used as paws.

Thus, the fish seem to walk along the sandy bottom, looking for prey.

Mudskipper

One of the most famous fish, which has the peculiarity of living out of water - mudskipper. She belongs to the family Bychkov and spends most of his time climbing the clayey banks. On land, these fish can move much faster than under water.

The gill cavities of these fish are able to retain water for a long time. If their body remains wet, fish can breathe through their thin skin. Male spinyskippers are very territorial and constantly fight each other for influence.

Rare deep sea fish

Sticktail

Sticktail(lat. Stylephorus chordatus) is a rare deep-sea fish that is so unusual that it is the only species of its genus and family. This fish has a very unusual mouth. It has one small tubular opening, and the jaws form an expanding skin pouch that works in the same way as a blacksmith's bellows.

Expanding the bag, the fish forcefully sucks in tiny crustaceans along with the water. At the same time, the eyeballs constantly turn like binoculars, focusing on incredibly small prey.

Tripod sloth

This strange deep-sea fish is one of the few examples of living creatures that prefer not to move much in the water and feed like coral polyps, sponges And anemones. She stays in place and feeds on plankton passing by.

Its three fins have long, thin projections, allowing the fish to cling to the mud of the seabed and remain motionless for several days. The fish begins to move only when necessary, using its two front fins, which help it grab pieces of food and move them to its mouth.

Since fish do not need to hunt for food, tripods practically blind. With this lifestyle, they can rarely meet their relatives, so they are hermaphrodites.

Here is a list (with photos) of ten prehistoric fish that were considered extinct. Feel free to mention in the comments those we excluded.

Hagfish

According to records, hagfish have been around for over 300 million years. These vertebrate predators feed mainly on fish, sometimes worms, live in relatively deep waters and reach a length of 45–70 cm. Hagfish are very tenacious, can go without water for a very long time, starve for a long time and remain alive for a long time with extremely severe wounds. A case is described when a fish, being decapitated, continued to swim for another 5 hours.

Alepisaurus

In ninth place in the ranking of prehistoric fish, which were considered extinct, is “Alepisaurus”. Agree, it looks very much like a fish that lived during the time of dinosaurs. Very little is known about their habitats, although they are widespread in all oceans except the polar seas. Alepisaurus can reach a length of up to 2 meters. It is considered very voracious - it feeds on small fish and squid.

Aravanidae are a family of tropical freshwater fish found in the Amazon basin, and parts of Africa, Asia and Australia. They are voracious predators that feed on any small animals they can catch, including birds and bats (they can jump up to 2 meters). Often shown in public aquariums and zoos.

The frilled shark looks more like a strange sea snake or eel than a shark. This one is rare predatory fish lives in the deep waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, where it feeds mainly on squid and fish. They can reach a length of up to 2 meters (females are larger than males). The frilled shark is not dangerous to humans - most of these sharks spend their entire lives without seeing humans.

Most close-up view The sturgeon can grow up to 6 meters long (as the largest white shark) and weigh up to 816 kg. They mostly stay close to the bottom, where they feed on small animals. It poses no danger to humans.

Arapaima

Arapaima is a tropical freshwater fish, considered one of the largest freshwater fish in the world - the length is usually up to 2 m, but some individuals reach 3 meters, and the weight of the largest arapaima caught was 200 kilograms. Lives in densely vegetated waters in South America in the Amazon River basin in Brazil, Guyana and Peru, where it feeds mainly on fish, as well as other small animals, including birds. Interesting feature This fish is that it must come to the surface every 5–20 minutes in order to breathe air (like cetaceans). Considered one of the most dangerous creatures of the Amazon.

Saw-nosed rays

Sawtooth rays are endangered and are found in the tropical regions of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, always close to the shore, sometimes swimming into the beds of large rivers. Sawnose rays are very similar in appearance to sawnose sharks, but compared to sharks, rays are much larger and reach up to 7.6 meters in length. Mostly peaceful, but if provoked, the stingray can become extremely aggressive and dangerous.

Mississippi girt

The Mississippi shellfish is a species of large predatory fish common in North and Central America. It is one of the largest freshwater fish (although sometimes it wanders into the sea): it reaches a length of 3–5 meters and weighs up to 150 kg. This is a voracious predator that can bite a young alligator in half with its jaws. To date, there are no confirmed, registered cases of human death from attacks by these fish.

In second place in the list of prehistoric fish considered extinct is the “Senegalese polyfin” - a freshwater predatory fish common in Africa, which is relatively small - 50 cm long. It has very poor eyesight. Polypterus hunts by smell and attacks all the fish it can swallow. This fish is also often kept in aquariums.

Coelacanth

Coelacanth is the most famous of all "living fossils" and deserves to be first on this list. These predators grow up to 2 meters and feed on small fish, including small sharks. They live in deep, dark waters off the eastern and south coast Africa and Indonesia. For 400 million years, coelacanths have remained virtually unchanged. They are endangered.

The underwater world fascinates with its beauty, and especially with its extraordinary inhabitants of the depths. The most unique and colorful fish became known only recently. Representatives of the underwater world are extremely graceful and original. It is not surprising that contemplation of swimming fish brings a person into a state of peace and tranquility.

Royal Centropyg

This small fish leads a bottom-dwelling lifestyle. Centropyg has a very bright color and looks quite impressive in large aquariums. For best comfort for fish there should be shelters and live rocks overgrown with algae.

Decorated lyrebird angel

This is one of the most beautiful fish to keep for a reef aquarium. The lyrebird angel has an elongated body and a lyre-shaped tail. It has a silver color, and there are wide dark stripes from the back of the head to the tail. They are quite demanding to care for - they require good food and water, as well as a large space.

Royal angelfish

This bright colorful fish is medium in size. It is slightly flattened on the sides, and its mouth resembles a bird's beak. The angelfish differs from other species in its peaceful nature, but it is difficult to keep in captivity. The fish loves a lot of space, and adaptation is usually difficult.

Radiant lionfish

The radiant lionfish is one of the most unusual and spectacular fish. The pale red body of the fish is covered with vertical rows of white, black and red stripes. A large number of The thorns on the body give it a menacing appearance, and their prick is quite painful. They feel best in large aquariums.

Moorish idol

The Moorish idol has an unusual wedge-shaped body shape and bright colors; these fish are considered one of the most beautiful. The fish are very demanding of their living conditions. They need a large aquarium and a varied diet.

Mandarin duck

The mandarin fish is very beautiful and is very popular among aquarists. Mandarin ducks love to live in the lower layers of water; they are very picky in terms of keeping them.

Triggerfish Picasso rectangular

Triggerfish Picasso is a fairly large fish that will decorate an aquarium. The length of its body is about 30 cm. The peculiarity of the fish is that its highly located eyes rotate independently of each other. The triggerfish has quite sharp teeth, so you need to be careful with the fish.

Surgeon blue royal

The Blue Royal Tang is very beautiful due to its bright colors and it also has an attractive body shape. These are quite large fish with a body length of up to 20 cm. Royal blue surgeons mainly prefer plant food.

Six-banded wrasse

The six-banded wrasse is another bright and beautiful representative of the water depths. It is diurnal and can live either alone or with other fish. It got its name thanks to its six bright characteristic stripes. It loves shelter, so the fish needs loose soil in which it burrows. The six-banded wrasse destroys various harmful gastropods.

Tetraodon aquarium helicopter fish

Tetraodon is an original and interesting fish. She swallows water or air and this makes her look like a ball. The length of tetraodon is from 6 to 25 cm. In the aquarium, they always define their territory, live there and do not allow “strangers” to approach them.

Mastacembela

Large and massive fish - mastacembelas - can grow up to 60 cm in length. They are distinguished by their bright and unusual coloring.

Betta fish "Cockerel"

"Cockerel" or betta fish is a small aquarium fish with bright colors and long veil fins. This fish is unpretentious in keeping and can even live without aeration. Is one of popular views aquarium pets.

It is worth noting that male “cockerels” are quite aggressive and do not get along with other individuals in the same aquarium.

Lionhead fish

These fish are the pioneers of aquariums. Their ancestors are Chinese silverfish. This fish appeared thanks to selection.

Butterfly fish

Extraordinarily beautiful butterfly fish live in South African waters and the Red Sea. They can sometimes be found in Southern Japan and Hawaii. The color of the fish is a combination of yellow, white and black colors, and there are several vertical lines on the body.

Clown fish

Clownfish are bright orange with black and white stripes. He is the prototype of the children's cartoon character Nemo. The fish lives in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Despite its beauty, it is a fairly strong aggressor.

Parrot fish

The parrotfish has a jaw shaped like a bird's beak. She gnaws coral reefs with her mouth.

These fish come in both aquarium and large specimens that grow up to two meters in length. They come in different colors - mostly bright tropical shades predominate.

Sea Horse

The seahorse is distinguished by its original and interesting unexpected appearance. He looks like a little horse. It moves with its head up, which also distinguishes it from other fish.

Two-tone angel

The bicolor angelfish or centropigus bicolor is a bright and very popular fish of its kind. It can be found in the depths of the Indian and Pacific oceans, as well as in Africa, Indonesia and the waters of the Philippines. As a rule, they live alone or in pairs near the reef or in lagoons. Its hindquarters are a deep blue, while its tail, head, and foreparts are a bright lemon color. There is also a bright blue spot on the head.

Jacques Cousteau, the most famous ocean explorer and inventor of scuba gear, was born on June 11, 1910. In honor of the oceanographer’s birthday, we present to you a selection of the most unusual inhabitants of the world’s oceans, discovered with the help of his invention

(Total 10 photos)

1. Ambon Scorpionfish (Latin: Pteroidichthys amboinensis).

Opened in 1856. Easily identified by its huge “eyebrows” - specific growths above the eyes. Able to change color and shed. Conducts a “guerrilla” hunt - camouflaging at the bottom and waiting for the victim. It is not uncommon and has been quite well studied, but its extravagant appearance simply cannot be ignored! (Roger Steene/Conservation International)

Opened in 2009. A very unusual fish - the tail fin is curved to the side, the pectoral fins are modified and look like the paws of land animals. The head is large, the widely spaced eyes are directed forward, like in vertebrates, due to which the fish has a peculiar “facial expression”. The color of the fish is yellow or reddish with sinuous white-blue stripes diverging in different directions from the blue eyes. Unlike other fish that swim, this species moves as if jumping, pushing off the bottom with its pectoral fins and pushing water out of the gill slits, creating jet thrust. The tail of the fish is curved to the side and cannot directly direct the movement of the body, so it oscillates from side to side. The fish can also crawl along the bottom using its pectoral fins, moving them like legs. (David Hall/EOL Rapid Response Team)

3. Rag picker (English: Leafy Seadragon, Latin: Phycodurus eques).

Opened in 1865. Representatives of this type of fish are notable for the fact that their entire body and head are covered with processes that imitate algae thalli. Although these processes are similar to fins, they do not take part in swimming and serve for camouflage (both when hunting shrimp and for protection from enemies). Lives in the waters Indian Ocean, washing southern, south-eastern and south-western Australia, as well as northern and eastern Tasmania. It feeds on plankton, small shrimp, and algae. Having no teeth, the rag picker swallows its food whole. (lecates/Flickr)

4. Moonfish (English: Ocean Sunfish, Latin: Mola mola).

Opened in 1758. The laterally compressed body is extremely high and short, which gives the fish an extremely strange appearance: it resembles a disk in shape. The tail is very short, wide and truncated; the dorsal, caudal and anal fins are interconnected. The skin of the moonfish is thick and elastic, covered with small bony tubercles. The sunfish can often be seen lying on its side on the surface of the water. The adult sunfish is a very poor swimmer, unable to overcome strong currents. It feeds on plankton, as well as squid, eel larvae, salps, ctenophores and jellyfish. It can reach gigantic sizes of several tens of meters and weigh 1.5 tons. (Franco Banfi)

5. Broadnose chimaera (lat. Rhinochimaera atlantica).

Opened in 1909. Absolutely disgusting looking jelly fish. Lives at the deep bottom Atlantic Ocean and feeds on shellfish. Extremely poorly studied. (Jay Burnett, NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC)

6. Frilled Shark (Latin: Chlamydoselachus anguineus).

Opened in 1884. These sharks look much more like a strange sea snake or eel than their closest relatives. In the frilled shark, the gill openings, of which there are six on each side, are covered with skin folds. In this case, the membranes of the first gill slit cross the throat of the fish and are connected to each other, forming a wide skin blade. Along with the goblin shark, it is one of the rarest sharks on the planet. No more than a hundred specimens of these fish are known. They have been studied extremely poorly. (Awashima Marine Park/Getty Images)

7. Indonesian coelacanth (English: Indonesian Coelacanth, Latin: Latimeria menadoensis).

Opened in 1999. A living fossil and probably the oldest fish on Earth. Before the discovery of the first representative of the coelant order, which includes the coelacanth, it was considered completely extinct. The divergence time of the two modern species of coelacanth is 30-40 million years. No more than a dozen were caught alive. (Pearson - Benjamin Cummings)

8. Hairy Angler (lat. Caulophryne polynema).

Opened in 1930. Very strange and scary fish that live on the deep bottom, where there is no sunlight - from 1 km and deeper. To lure the inhabitants of the deep sea, it uses a special luminous growth on the forehead, characteristic of the entire order of anglerfish. Thanks to its special metabolism and extremely sharp teeth, it can eat anything it comes across, even if the prey is many times larger and is also a predator. It reproduces no less strangely than it looks and feeds - due to the unusually harsh conditions and rarity of fish, the male (ten times smaller than the female) attaches to the flesh of his chosen one and transmits everything necessary through the blood. (BBC)

9. Blobfish (Latin: Psychrolutes marcidus).

Opened in 1926. Often mistaken for a joke. In fact, this is a completely real species of deep-sea bottom-dwelling marine fish of the psycholute family, which on the surface takes on a “jelly” appearance with a “sad expression.” It has been poorly studied, but this is enough to recognize it as one of the most bizarre. The photo shows a copy of the Australian Museum. (Kerryn Parkinson/Australian Museum)

10. Smallmouth macropinna (English, Latin Macropinna microstoma) - winner for quirkiness.

Opened in 1939. It lives at very great depths, so it has been poorly studied. In particular, the principle of fish vision was not entirely clear. It was believed that she must experience very great difficulties due to the fact that she can only see up. Only in 2009 was the structure of the eye of this fish fully studied. Apparently, when trying to study it earlier, the fish simply could not tolerate the change in pressure. The most notable feature of this species is the transparent, dome-shaped shell that covers the top and sides of its head, and the large, usually upward-pointing, cylindrical eyes that lie underneath this shell. A dense and elastic covering shell is attached to the scales of the back at the back, and on the sides to the wide and transparent periocular bones, which provide protection for the organs of vision. This covering structure is usually lost (or at least very badly damaged) when fish are brought to the surface in trawls and nets, so its existence was not known until recently. Under the covering shell there is a chamber filled with a transparent liquid, in which, in fact, the eyes of the fish are located; The eyes of living fish are bright green and separated by a thin bony septum, which, extending backwards, expands to accommodate the brain. In front of each eye, but behind the mouth, is a large rounded pouch that contains an olfactory receptor rosette. That is, what at first glance appears to be eyes in photographs of live fish is actually an olfactory organ. The green color is caused by the presence of a specific yellow pigment in them. It is believed that this pigment provides special filtering of light coming from above and reduces its brightness, which allows the fish to discern the bioluminescence of potential prey. (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)