Marine expert reveals truth behind terrifying 'demon fish' caught on film

A unique-looking fish has got the internet talking lately - with many using the name ‘demon fish’.

A video of an Angler fish spread across the internet as it was discovered in shallow waters recently, leaving many understandably taken aback by it. However, bringing more clarity to why the fish was discovered is scientist David Jara Boguñá.

Boguñá is a marine researcher who has dished new details about the fish’s discovery seen off the coast of the Spanish Island, Tenerife, in a February 13 Instagram video.

When the original image made rounds on the internet, it led to some people even bursting into tears reacting to the fish on TikTok videos.

So what caused the fish to be in shallow waters?

A reason why this is not a typical fish you may spot on your local visit to a marina or even fish market, is because this particular species are only usually found on the depths of seabeds of between 200 and 2,000 meters.

So you can see the need for the shock horror reaction when it was found on the surface levels of the sea.

The photo of the fish taken by Boguñá does make it appear bigger than it actually is. But, in actuality, the fish was much smaller than this and could actually fit in someone's hands or a small jar. Who would have thought it from a ‘demon fish’?

Explaining this in the video, Boguñá said: 'To start with the size….the small fish measured no more than six centimetres,' he said in the video. "She was more of a black fritter than a black monster."

He also said that despite the fish being dubbed a ‘demon fish’, it never attacked him or the colleagues he was with. More than anything, he said it was more ‘confused’ at its presence.

David clarified that the gender of the fish was female: “'The second most important thing I want to clarify is that it was a female, since the males are no more than two, three centimeters long”.

Explaining a little further as to why the fish may have strayed away from its natural home, the marine expert said: “There has been a lot of hypotheses about it."

"But the main ones would be that the animal was sick, the animal was swept away upstream or that it was fleeing from sort of predator."

It also could have 'ingested some fish, and that at the time of digestion, gases could have caused it to rise to the surface,' he said.

Sadly, the fish actually died not long after making its long journey up.

The body of the fish was donated to the Tenerife Museum of Nature and Archaeology.