The Astroscopus Guttatus ("speckled one who aims at the stars"), more commonly known as the Northern Stargazer or even the Northern Monkfish, is a sub-species of the Stargazer fish, which includes over 50 sub-species. It is a dark brown fish with white spots all over its body, to help camouflage against the sand beds. These spots gradually get larger towards its tail, which has three horizontal white stripes. The Northern Stargazer's head holds its nostrils, gill slits, eyes, and mouth, all located on the top. Its mouth and eyes face upwards, which both serves as the reason for its name and helps it ambush and spot prey from beneath the sand, and it has large spines above its gill opening are quite venomous. Unlike most species of fish, the Northern stargazer is able to breathe with its nostrils instead of gills, an adaption to better hide within the sand, where it uses its side fins to dig a burrow. This fish dwells in temperate or tropical seas around the world (although most prominently in the area from New York to Virginia), and buries itself in sandy to muddy sea beds in bays, estuaries, and areas close to the shore, although some sub-species of this fish are found in moderately deep waters up to 900 meters (or 3000 feet) deep. The main diet of these fish include small fish and crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp, which they eat by ambushing them in the sand and using their large mouths as vacuums to suck their prey up. Northern stargazers lay eggs that float to the surface, where the larvae hatch and live in the water column for some time before migrating to the bottom of the seafloor. They usually grow to be from 8-18 inches (or around 20-46 cm), but the largest recorded length a Northern Stargazer was found to have grown was 22 inches or 56 centimeters. Northern stargazers may also bite divers that accidentally disturb them, and can be aggressive towards humans. These fish are generally solitary species, as they are bottom dwellers.
yes this is my idea of fun i also wrote this for my school newspaper too :D
