{"id":2385,"date":"2026-07-27T18:24:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/astronomer-fish-ugly-venomous-and-sometimes-electric\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T18:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:24:52","slug":"astronomer-fish-ugly-venomous-and-sometimes-electric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/astronomer-fish-ugly-venomous-and-sometimes-electric\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomer Fish: Ugly, Venomous, and Sometimes Electric"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Earth\u2019s oceans teem with genuinely strange creatures. Among them are the Stargazers, notable for their nightmare-inducing appearance as well as their distinctive arsenal.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Not Exactly a Good Luck Charm<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There are roughly fifty species within the Uranoscopidae family, found in tropical and temperate waters around the world. Reaching up to 59 centimeters in length and weighing up to 9 kilograms, <em>Astroscopus guttatus<\/em> is their largest known representative.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Also read<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Nobody picked them: city raccoons are already showing the first signs of domestication<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Morphologically, these <strong>fish<\/strong> share a massive mouth lined with numerous teeth, as well as upward-facing eyes that look toward the surface (and the sky), which has earned them the common name of the <em>stargazers<\/em>. Their dorsal coloration is dark, their flanks and belly are lighter and speckled, and their caudal fin is striped with clearly defined white bands.<\/p>\n<p>Buried on sandy or rocky seabed for most of the time along coastlines, they wait patiently for prey (comprising small fish, crustaceans, and marine invertebrates) to drift nearby, and they suck it in in the blink of an eye, creating a powerful suction when they open their mouths.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"cssc-content-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Little Red Cardinalfish gets eaten by hidden Stargazer!\" width=\"680\" height=\"383\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/xITBwnlbO6s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Secret Weapons<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>When prey becomes scarcer, Stargazers can rely on spectacular adaptations, including a mouth appendage resembling a hairy tongue, which they wiggle and use as bait.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Also read<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">This cave-dwelling fish discovered in Alabama could be one of the rarest ever observed<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Their arsenal also includes four or five venomous spines located just ahead of their dorsal fin. Capable of inflicting intense pain on anyone unlucky enough to brush against them, their venom is nonetheless not powerful enough to cause death in humans.<\/p>\n<p>Another notable asset: some Astroscopus species possess cells known as &#8216;electroplates&#8217;, capable of generating discharges reaching up to around fifty volts. These discharges are mainly meant to deter potential predators.<\/p>\n<p>To stay within the realm of unsettling-looking fish, discover the anglerfish, the abyssal creature that seems to belong in science fiction.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Also read<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Humans have influenced the evolution of wolves and the shape of their skulls<\/span><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1994,931,98,1995,1538],"class_list":["post-2385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-astronomer","tag-electric","tag-fish","tag-ugly","tag-venomous","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2387,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions\/2387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}