Normally found in the dark depths of the ocean, the football fish may not come across a meal very often, so it has a large mouth and extendible stomach to swallow live prey almost as big as itself. The prey is drawn near by the bioluminescent lures at the tips of a fishing-pole-like projection from the football fish's head. Finding a mate may also be difficult in the dark, so football fish, like many of their anglerfish relatives, have small males that bite onto the body of a female. Their skin grows together at which time the male becomes parasitic. The female provides nutrients and oxygen to the attached male. Football fish reproductive behavior makes one think of marriage vows, "till death to us part." When the female's eggs need to be fertilized, the parasitic male is right there to provide the sperm.

 

This specimen was carefully mounted in a tank filled with preservative and put on display in the open-ocean exhibit gallery where it is to this day. It's a great example of the help local fishermen have given to CMM and CMA over the years by providing unusual specimens that the sea reveals.