--- title: "Humpback Anglerfish (Melanocetus johnsonii) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "The female wears a lure on her snout and can swallow a fish longer than herself." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/humpback-anglerfish-1.webp" published: "2026-09-29" updated: "2026-09-29" --- # Humpback Anglerfish (*Melanocetus johnsonii*) > **Status**: Checked against 6 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: The female wears a lure on her snout and can swallow a fish longer than herself. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Future Garage & Deep Electronica // Andy Stott, "Luxury Problems" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/2Qtq6zVNB4BgkLJUrdHoYR) > **Vibe Match**: The female humpback anglerfish carries a lure on her snout and has been recorded as deep as 4,500 m. Andy Stott's Luxury Problems floats one clear voice over murky, slowed-down bass, a single bright lure in the dark. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Melanocetus johnsonii* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2015-4.rlts.t18127840a21911455.en)) - **Superpower**: Swallows prey longer than itself - **Habitat**: Tropical to temperate oceans worldwide, usually at depths of 100 to 1,500 m - **Diet**: Includes fish longer than itself - **Tags**: fish, deep-sea, bioluminescent, carnivore, ocean ## Natural History & Behavior ## A lure in the dark The female humpback anglerfish is a soft-bodied fish with no scales and no pelvic fins. Live fish are black, and the genus name *Melanocetus* comes from Greek words for "black" and "large sea creature". She has a large head, a big mouth and long pointed teeth. On her snout sits a short rod called an illicium, tipped with a bulb called an esca. She belongs to the ceratioids, a group of deep-sea anglerfishes. Ceratioids have a bacterial light organ that serves as bait to attract prey. ## Small male, bigger female Males and females look very different. Females grow to 18 cm. Males are slender, have no lure and only reach 2.9 cm. They are also dwarfed and non-parasitic, meaning they do not live off the female. Her eggs are presumably held in floating gelatinous rafts. The larvae are planktonic, which means they drift with the plankton, and they are found mostly in the top 100 m of water. ## Swallowing fish bigger than herself The species is capable of catching and swallowing prey larger than itself. FishBase gives one case: a 6.6 cm individual with a *Chauliodus* of about 24 cm in its stomach, more than three times its length. > **The original fish** Albert Günther described the species in 1864 from a 64 mm female that James Yates Johnson brought from Madeira. Its big belly held a fish, rolled into a ball, nearly twice the length of the anglerfish. Günther named it for Johnson. ## From Madeira to the Ross Sea The species lives in tropical to temperate parts of all oceans. It is usually found between 100 and 1,500 m, with a recorded range of 100 to 4,500 m. In Australia it is known off central to southern New South Wales and near Norfolk Island. In 2014 one turned up in the stomach of a 138 cm Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea, the first record in Antarctic waters. The toothfish was caught on a bottom longline at 1,243 to 1,355 m. Scientists confirmed the anglerfish's identity from the structure of its esca and from a gene called COI. The anglerfish measured 157 mm and weighed 290 g. The IUCN Red List rates the species Least Concern. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Can a humpback anglerfish swallow something bigger than itself? Yes. One humpback anglerfish of just 6.6 cm was found with a *Chauliodus* of roughly 24 cm in its stomach, a meal more than three times its own length. *(Source: [FishBase]())* ### Do male humpback anglerfish have a lure too? No. Only the female carries the illicium and esca. A male lacks a lure and is tiny beside her: 2.9 cm at most, against her 18 cm. *(Source: [Australian Museum]())* ### Has a humpback anglerfish ever been found near Antarctica? Yes. In January 2014 a fishing vessel in the Ross Sea caught an Antarctic toothfish with one inside its stomach. Researchers called it the first record of the species in Antarctic waters. It pushed the known range south by more than 1,000 nautical miles. *(Source: [Orlov et al. 2015]())* ## Sources 1. [Humpback Blackdevil, Melanocetus johnsonii Gunther, 1864. Australian Museum.]() 2. [Melanocetus johnsonii, Humpback anglerfish. FishBase.]() 3. [Orlov et al. (2015). First record of humpback anglerfish (Melanocetus johnsonii) (Melanocetidae) in Antarctic waters. Polar Research.]() 4. [Pietsch (2009). Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea, Introduction and Historical Perspective. University of California Press.]() 5. [Hendry et al. (2018). Ongoing Transposon-Mediated Genome Reduction in the Luminous Bacterial Symbionts of Deep-Sea Ceratioid Anglerfishes.]() 6. [Arnold (2015). Melanocetus johnsonii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T18127840A21911455.]() *Published September 29, 2026. 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