Shadowing Practice: The Creepiest Fish Found at the Bottom of Our Oceans - Learn English Speaking with Video
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If you were to take a dive to the bottom of the ocean, you'd quickly realize that the friendly fish you're used to seeing near the surface were now anything but friendly.
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Their teeth grow longer, their fins become.. legs?
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And they start to consume things they really shouldn't be able to consume.
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It's as if the ocean intentionally buried these creatures away into the deep to keep them away from literally anybody else.
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And for some reason, in the deepest parts of the abyss, these deformed fish existing aren't just outliers, but have instead become the rule.
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But why are these fish getting more and more terrifying the deeper you go?
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And what advantages do they have to turning into these freaks?
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Well, to know why these fish are so creepy, we have to realize that it's usually not just for show, and the creepiness often has some sort of purpose.
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Survival of the fittest has been going on for millions of years, and nature doesn't just make animals creepy for fun, nor does it make them cute for fun either.
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Take a look here, this is probably the least creepy fish in the world, and everybody knows it's the clownfish.
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It doesn't really get much cuter than this, but they're dressed brightly for a reason.
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They tell predators that this fish lives among sea anemones, which are full of stinging tentacles, basically saying, don't eat me or you'll get stung.
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Survival of the cutest, you could say.
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But for the deep sea, the rule seems to flip to survival of the creepiest.
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At the bottom of the epipelagic zone is the stargazer fish, which, well, I don't really know who created this.
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It's basically just a landmine, but the fact it just stares at you makes it even more creepy.
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It literally buries itself into the sand, leaving only its eyes and mouths poking out.
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So it can 1.
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See you, and 2.
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Eat you.
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It's almost comical, like they're having a beach day where they bury themselves in the sand, But my worst fear is walking in the water
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and sticking my toe in what was actually a fish's mouth and not just land.
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But this is probably the creepiest fish you'll find in the Epype logic.
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And since they bury themselves in the sand, they're technically at the very bottom of it.
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But once you enter the Twilight Zone, you'll notice all the colorful fish are instantly gone.
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But this makes sense though.
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Since light can barely reach you, having bright warning colors like the clownfish isn't useful.
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No one's even gonna see it.
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You're getting chomped before they see your warning sign.
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So the fish here stop being colorful.
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But it's not like they just turn into pitch black versions of clownfish.
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Instead, they turn more into something like this.
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This is the hatchet fish. Because it...
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It looks like a hatchet.
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You'd think the marine biologists wouldn't be able to get away with names that are this informal.
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They're silvery, and instead of being normal like clownfish, their eyes have moved so that they are permanently pointed upwards.
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They wouldn't even be able to see you if you were standing right in front of them.
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So why'd they make themselves just...disabled?
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Well, the Twilight Zone has removed most light, but there's still a bit that leaks in from the epipelagic.
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When they're permanently looking up, they can always see any faint outlines of any animals above them.
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This can be to spot prey, but it's actually mostly to spot predators.
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See, the hatchet fish look creepy with permanently stuck eyes, but they're actually doing it for defense.
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They're actually usually only around a few centimeters long, So they aren't exactly the most threatening fish in the ocean.
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Especially because most predators aren't afraid eating a couple creepy eyes.
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Its entire body is actually designed to reflect light, and use a glowing underside to hide their shadow.
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These poor fellas were trying so hard not to be eaten, that they ended up becoming terrifying little monsters in the process.
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But at the bottom of the Twilight Zone is a fish with the complete opposite approach.
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This is the Viperfish.
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And for some reason, viperfish aren't just aggressive, but encoded somewhere in their DNA makes them attack nearly anything they come across.
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They look terrifying, and to some smaller animals, they 100% are.
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They take every opportunity they can get, and if they see something that looks like food, they'll try and bite it.
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However, they're actually not that big.
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They only grow up to around a foot long, which makes their teeth not too large by comparison to anything our size.
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They kind of have the attitude of an apex predator, but to bigger animals, it's all bark and no bite.
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Or, well, the bite's just not that strong.
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Oddly enough, viperfish don't have scales, but instead have this mucus-like coating over their bodies.
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But it's not slimy as in being gross, it's more like a weird gel layer.
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The strange part is we don't fully understand what it is yet.
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But this unique mixture's properties make it hydrodynamic and let viperfish glide through water faster, as well as it's anti-reflective.
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But even though viperfish are dragonfish, there's another dragonfish that takes this layer of anti-reflection to the highest level in the entire known ocean.
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This is the Pacific Black Dragon, a dragonfish so dark that its skin is reported to absorb up to 99.95% of light.
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They look a bit similar since they're part of the same family.
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So what is this dragonfish skin made of?
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Well, it's different than the gel that viperfish have.
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Theirs is made up of tightly packed melanosomes, which are tiny organelles filled with melanin pigment.
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These melanosomes are arranged in a special microscopic structure that scatters and traps incoming light, preventing it from reflecting back.
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Their stealth is near the maximum possible level as a result of this, since even bioluminescence isn't lighting these guys up.
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It's a bit obvious why they'd evolve this way, but it's honestly so impressive that they're essentially the only creatures in the entire ocean to achieve this level of ultra black.
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So what could be deeper than this?
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Well, if you for some reason decide to descend even further into the Midnight Zone, you'll realize that the fish here are no longer able to even abuse any traces of light from the Epablagic.
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It's either they make their own light, or there's no light at all.
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And in this zone is probably the most iconic creepy fish in the entire world, the anglerfish.
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If you've seen Finding Nemo, you'll recognize its big glowing bowl, called the Esker, which is what it uses to lure smaller fish in.
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Once it gets close, it, well, does that.
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That part was pretty obvious, but despite it being the classic horror animal of the sea, they're actually not dangerous to humans.
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Even the largest ones only reach up to about a foot or two, and even if they did reach you, their creepy teeth are super thin and brittle,
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and definitely aren't designed to stab through a human.
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The only real dangerous part about seeing them is that it would mean you're thousands of meters below the ocean's surface, so the pressure would have killed you long before any anglerfish ever would.
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At the bottom of the Midnight Zone is.. this thing.
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This guy is actually also part of the dragonfish family, just perhaps the most unhinged one of all of them.
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Literally unhinged.
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This is the Stoplight Loose Jaw, and yes, I know it sounds like the name of a rock band, but it gets its name from having eyes that look like a stoplight, and a jaw that's really loose.
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Essentially what this means is that its entire lower jaw is completely detached from the rest of its head, besides a tiny thin joint.
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And I know this seems like another disability, but what it lets this fish do is unhinge its mouth not just super wide, but near instantly.
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It essentially has a bear trap attached to its face, and can swallow things as large as its head.
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Nothing's in the way.
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No cheeks, no floor, just a big swallowing hole.
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Each of its eyes produces red and green light too, hence the stoplight name, which helps it detect prey.
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Basically, no deep sea fish can see red light, so not only can this guy see prey, they won't even know that he's lighting them up.
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As for the green beam, well, we actually don't entirely know yet.
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It might be used for mating or helping with navigation, but honestly, we just really don't know.
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I think the most logical answer might be that they just love celebrating with Christmas colours.
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But at the very bottom of the midnight zone lies what might be the weirdest fish of them all, the deep sea swallower.
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This is also a similar nickname given to the gulper eel, but this is a completely different species, as this is a fish with fins.
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They're also called black swallowers, and what they're good at doing is… well, you guessed it.
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Black swallowers can swallow prey over twice their own length, or even ten times their own body weight.
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What's strange is that you probably wouldn't even know this fish was a freak if it didn't have anything inside of it, as its stomach goes back to normal size after digestion.
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This is another level of feeling bloated.
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They become chunky, chunky.
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And I know what you're thinking, this is cool and all, but this is just the same example of, well, answer super strong since they can lift 50 times their body weight.
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But they only weigh a few milligrams, so it's not actually that impressive.
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Well, this is a point, since black swallowers aren't that large, at only around 10 inches across.
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But this does mean that they can swallow objects over 20 inches long, which is way longer than any human could ever do, even considering absolute size.
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And if you were to do relative size, this would be like a human swallowing a sheep whole.
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So why'd they evolve this way?
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Well, when they're this deep, food isn't as common, but not impossible.
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This adaptation is a strange one, but it lets the black swallower find one meal and then not have to find another for weeks.
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But this doesn't come with no downsides.
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When you become this fat after eating, you can imagine what it must feel like for the fish.
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Carrying that amount of mass definitely slows them down, and can even make them extra buoyant and unintentionally flow upwards.
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A ton of their energy is focused on digestion too, And it's not exactly easy to swim away when you look like you're 10 months, or well, 10 years pregnant.
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But you're probably asking, what lies even deeper than this?
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Below the midnight zone is the last zone of the normal ocean, the abyssopelagic zone, aka the abyss.
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What lies here are the ugliest fish imaginable.
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Case in point, this guy.
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This is basically a normal anglerfish, on steroids.
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It's called the tripjaw anglerfish, or the wonderfish, or by its scientific name, Traumatithis, and it's part of the wolf trap anglerfish family.
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So what's the difference between these and normal wolf trap anglers?
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Well, let's take a look at this normal wolf trap angler here.
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Yes, they're also terrifying.
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Yes, they're known as sea devils.
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And yes, they are literally a fish with a fishing rod on their head.
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Their jaws have interlocking teeth, which is where they get the wolf trap name from.
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When something takes the bait, they physically trap them inside their teeth like a real wolf trap would.
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Wonderfish on the other hand also have this same trap design, but you'll notice they don't have a lure.
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So why are they still considered anglerfish?
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Well, because the lure isn't on their head anymore.
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It's directly inside their mouth.
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Fish swim directly towards the wonderfish and get delivered straight into its digestive system with no extra hassle.
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It's pretty weird and honestly kinda strange that they choose to move their giant glowing ball inside their mouth.
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But is this more effective?
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And why'd they become the only anglerfish to adapt this way?
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Well, we don't fully know, but it's suspected that the reason is because wonderfish live in the abyss, which is the deepest of all anglerfish.
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Light is so unbelievably reduced in this zone that it's possible to have the giant law sitting inside a mouth.
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If there was any more light from above, it might still give away faint outlines and scare prey off.
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With this, there's only one step for the feeding machine, and they can save even more energy without waving around.
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Wonderfish is definitely not the name I would have given a fish that looks like this, but it is pretty impressive to stick a light bulb in your own mouth.
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At the bottom of the abyssal zone is the ocean floor.
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So what happens to fish on the ocean floor?
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Well, since there is a floor, the fish evolved to stand on it.
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This is the tripod fish, and it genuinely stands on the ground.
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This is the only fish in the world that's capable of this, Which I guess isn't too surprising, since what advantage could this possibly give any normal fish in the open ocean?
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Well, these aren't actually legs, even though they are 100% supporting the fish up.
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It doesn't walk like a crab or a frog either.
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It instead just balances on these three ridiculously long fin rays.
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One comes off the tail, and two from the pelvic fins.
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In most fish, these fin rays are soft and flexible, but in the tripod fish, they're reinforced and stiffened into bone-like rods that can reach over three feet long,
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even though the actual fish is only about a foot.
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It's almost horrifying to think that evolution drove this otherwise normal fish to extend its fins
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so long that they literally became giant stilts for the fish to stand out.
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So why did this happen?
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At the bottom of the abyss doing nothing is good.
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With no sunlight and barely any food, the world is essentially in slow motion here.
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Most hunters live in the upper abyss or the other higher zones.
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It's too deep for most hyper aggressive animals, so the tripod fish sits and waits.
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Or stands and waits.
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Standing above the sea floor allows it to hold a position for hours or even days.
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And in the abyss there's a slow water current that flows by, causing things to drift slowly by.
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They're usually eating tiny things like zooplankton or worms, definitely not any large prey.
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But once something comes nearby, their upper fins are hypersensitive enough to know something's near, and they can lean forwards to snatch it.
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This might just be the worst life to ever exist, eternally standing still and waiting to eat just so they can.. continue standing still.
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Swim too much and they'll run out of energy, but at least they'll get to find a mate and reproduce.
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Right?
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Not even.
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Tripod fish barely move, and evolution found a way around that too, by making them both male and female at the same time.
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They are capable of reproducing with other tripods, but it's extremely rare to find another, and they usually just self-fertilize.
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The eggs float upwards into shallower water, and when they grow up, they drift back down and become an adult, standing on their biological stilts,
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alone, forever, until they die.
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If you thought being an adult was hard, remember that these guys exist.
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While not necessarily threatening, these fish probably have the loneliest lives in the entire ocean.
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On a real note, if they were smart enough to be real social creatures like us, they probably wouldn't be able to exist as a species.
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They would simply go insane.
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So we've hit the bottom of the ocean.
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What could be deeper than this?
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If you've seen any of our other videos, you'd know about the ocean's hidden zone
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that only exists in a select few places in the world where oceanic trenches are formed.
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This is the Haddle Zone, the deepest zone in the world that extends all the way into the deepest point in the ocean that we know of.
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Most things here are either microscopic forms of life, or just don't exist.
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Except one.
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The deepest living fish ever recorded.
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The only fish that is capable of surviving tens of thousands of pounds per square inch of pressure.
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A creature so soft and gelatinous, it looks like it shouldn't even be alive.
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This is the snailfish.
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Snailfish don't have scales, or armor, or barely any bone structure.
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And this is because if they had any more, they'd be crushed.
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Their eyes are being reduced to simple light patches under the skin, and they don't even have a swim bladder, because any gas-filled organ would collapse here.
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The snailfish is what you'd get if you removed everything unnecessarily from a fish, and left it with only the basics of what it needs to exist.
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It has a basic brain and nervous system, just enough to detect any vibrations in the water.
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Its mouth is simple because it doesn't need any heavy chewing for what it eats.
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Its fins are simple to just allow it to move.
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And everything else just wasn't a requirement to live.
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That's the life in the Haddle Zone, as there's no monstrous adaptations left for evolution to give these fish, besides the adaptation to exist, to endure.
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Whether their life is worse than tripod fishes, I'm honestly not sure.
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Chances are, they probably lost their ability to understand they exist in the first place too, as even that wasn't a requirement.
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In any case, I hope you enjoyed the video.
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We just hit 40,000 subscribers, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
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Please let me know what you'd like to see next.
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And if you want to watch our video about Whale Falls and how they die, check it out here.
Why practice speaking with this video?
Practicing your English speaking skills using engaging content like the video "The Creepiest Fish Found at the Bottom of Our Oceans" can offer unique benefits. The thrilling topic draws your attention, allowing you to immerse yourself in the language while discussing fascinating marine life. This context not only enhances your vocabulary but also encourages the use of technical terms related to biology and environmental science. Furthermore, the video utilizes shadowing techniques that imitate authentic speech patterns, which is ideal for IELTS speaking practice. As you listen and repeat phrases, you will develop fluency and improve your pronunciation.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
In the video, the speaker employs several grammatical structures and expressions that can enrich your speaking repertoire:
- Conditional Clauses: Phrases like "If you were to take a dive..." highlight hypothetical situations. Practicing these can help you express possibilities during conversations.
- Descriptive Language: The speaker uses vivid descriptors such as "creepy," "colorful," and "deformed," enhancing the imagery. Incorporating descriptive adjectives will make your speech more engaging and attractive.
- Rhetorical Questions: The discussion features questions such as "But why are these fish getting more and more terrifying?" These questions stimulate thought and can be a persuasive tool in conversation.
Common Pronunciation Traps
Listening to the video closely will help you identify and overcome common pronunciation challenges. Here are a few points to consider:
- Technical Terms: Words like "epipelagic" and "stargazer" may be unfamiliar. Practice saying them slowly, focusing on breaking them down into syllables.
- Contractions: The speaker often uses contractions (e.g., "it's" instead of "it is"). Pay attention to how these change the rhythm of speech and practice them in your own dialogue.
- Intonation Patterns: The speaker uses varied intonation to express excitement or suspense, which keeps the audience engaged. Try to mimic these tones as you practice the shadow speech technique, which involves repeating phrases in real-time to improve fluency.
By focusing on these elements, you'll enhance your English speaking abilities while enjoying fascinating content about deep-sea creatures!
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.