• Question: How come it seems like angler fish make light, and I know it can help them but would it not make it obvious that they were coming and attract their predators?

    Asked by rebeccam to Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 20 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      They have ‘bioluminescnce’ meaning nautral, biological light – special cells in their ‘bulbs’ do this.

      In their ecosystem, they’re pretty high up on the food chain – they actually use the light to attract prey in order to kill them, so they actually want to stand out!

    • Photo: Valeria Senigaglia

      Valeria Senigaglia answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Every choice an animal (or evolution) makes is a result of a trade off between two options. In this case the trade off may be between being more visible for predators and attract more preys. As Kevin said, they are quite up in the food chain so they can worry less about being predated.

    • Photo: Joanna Cruden

      Joanna Cruden answered on 22 Jun 2012:

      Fish are so diverse and there are so many beautiful colours and shapes, often deadliest are the most attractive

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