Humans need to worry about this fish. The Fangttoh is never found above 200 meters unless it is dead or dying.

The Fangtooth (Anoplogaster cornuta), is another ocean monster that looks like it was a prop in a horror movie. Many fish found in the deepest parts of the ocean are very strange in appearance, having large fang teeth, glowing or iridescent body parts or other strange features.

Fangtooth Features and Size

The Fangtooth is very small growing to six inches in length. While a monster in appearance, it is barely the size of a Red Belly Piranha. It has a body shape similar to that of a Red Belly Piranha: short and thick.

The fangtooth has long sharp teeth. The Fangtooth has the largest teeth of all water-based animals in proportion to their body. Juvenile Fangtooth are light grey in color. Adult Fangtooth range in color between black and dark brown.

The Fangtooth head has some interesting features including a large jaw that has multiple mucus cavities with sharp edges and it has a think skin. The eyes are small, set high on its head, but are otherwise not noteworthy.

Its fins are filled with soft rays and it has a forked tail. Also of note is the longest two teeth in the front of the Fangtooth’s head. They are so long that the Fangtooth has developed opposing holes to receive them on either side of its brain (see image above).

Fangtooth Habitat

The Fangtooth, like most ocean monsters, lives in the deep water and are unable to survive at shallow depths. They are found as deep as 5 kilometres/3.5 miles deep. At this depth, there is no light. Any light found is generated from other fish. The water in their habitat is between 36°F to 32°F/ 2°C to 0°C.

The Fangtooth uses contact chemoreception to locate its prey. Contact chemoreception is a means in which a fish is able to detect chemical signatures in the water. Chemical signatures of other fish. This, along with radar, is the only option for locating food in the deep ocean where it is sparse.

Most of the time, Fangtooth are found between 600 to 6,500 feet/200 to 2,000 meters down. Even at these depths, light is not visible and the world is dark and cold.

Fangtooth Food Preferences

The Fangtooth will eat anything it can find. It is not picky as food is hard to find in such a dark world where everything is feeding on everything else. This is a world of strange looking creatures.

Food here is scarce, so the fangtooth will eat just about anything it can find. Most of its meals probably fall from the upper depths of the ocean. The fangtooth is found throughout the world in temperate and tropical ocean regions including the waters off the coast of Australia.

Man Eater Danger Scale

Humans need to worry about this fish. The Fangttoh is never found above 200 meters unless it is dead or dying. They are also small and as they do not swim or attack in schools, the man eater danger scale for the Fangtooth is 0.