Fisherman catches strange ocean creature, and users are joking: "Looks like Demi Moore at the end of The Substance"

Aptocyclus ventricosus (Image via Instagram/ rfedortsov_official_account)
Aptocyclus ventricosus (Image via Instagram/ rfedortsov_official_account)

The ocean is the Earth's own horror movie. Let us present the newest deep-sea marvel hauled up from the depths by Russian fisherman Roman Fedortsov. The strange beast is the smooth lumpsucker.

A glimpse of the fish has left everyone wondering, Are we certain this creature is from Earth?

So, the internet exploded. Now, if you're holding out for everyone to be cowering in boots, fearing that the apocalypse is loading, do not. Because the fish can be strange, but social media is laughing its way through.

One X user mentioned:

"Looks like Demi Moore at the end of the Substance"

Demi Moore waking up to find out she’s trending for this? No.

A user straight up suggested:

"Throw it back"

Immediate rejection. No hesitation.

One user summed up their reaction with a pictorial representation:

When words fail, panic memes speak.

One user joked:

"But scientists will be like “Oh yeah that’s the agsiagwbwodvaavq it’s been around for 8,000 years”."

Scientists, explain yourselves.

One user hilariously speculated:

"Damn that fish is stressed 🤣"

This fish has seen things. It wants none of this.

Meanwhile, a user commented:

"If this is real I blame Florida"

The universal scapegoat for all things bizarre.


The Smooth Lumpsucker

Roman Fedortsov is a deep-sea explorer. He recently uploaded a video of his newest deep-sea discovery.

The smooth lumpsucker looks like a water balloon gone through… things. This gooey, brain-like creature appears forever perplexed.

Scientifically named Aptocyclus ventricosus, this deep-sea dweller reaches up to 44 cm in length and usually resides in the dark depths of the ocean.

Commenters didn't hesitate to eviscerate it with comparisons that varied from "Mars Attacks" invaders to Megamind's cousin nobody knew it had.

Some insisted the fish had crawled straight out of a radioactive nightmare, joking that it must’ve been caught near Chernobyl.

Others wanted it gone immediately—because if it’s not proof of alien life, it’s definitely proof that deep-sea creatures are in a silent competition to be as unsettling as possible.


Why do deep-sea fish look like that?

Before we begin demanding an exorcism, let's not forget that deep-sea animals are not here to do our art critiques, they're just fighting to live in extreme environments.

There, it's dark, the pressure might crush a can of soda into a pancake, and finding food is incredibly difficult.

The outcome is evolutionary modifications that appear to be supernatural– huge jaws, nightmare teeth, and bioluminescent features.

Such as the Sloane's viperfish. This animal has fangs so long that it literally can't shut its mouth without impaling itself.

Then there's the pelican eel, whose jaw opening is so wide it could swallow prey nearly its own size.

Down in the deep sea, you don't miss an all-you-can-eat deal.

And then there's bioluminescence, the deep-sea stuff that enables fish to either entice their next meal or spook predators before being spooked themselves.


More ocean animals that need a warning label

Angler fish, Isopoda and Bioluminescence (Image via Instagram/ rfedortsov_official_account)
Angler fish, Isopoda and Bioluminescence (Image via Instagram/ rfedortsov_official_account)

If you thought the lumpsucker was the only sea oddball getting attention, you weren't paying attention.

Only last year, a Hudson Valley, New York, fisherman hauled in what appeared to be a creature ripped from a horror film.

Labeled as having a mouth like the "Sarlacc pit from Star Wars" by fisherman Eric Osinkie to Newsweek, the eel-like horror ended up being a sea lamprey.

Simply put, it's a parasitic fish that clings to other fish using its suction-cup mouth and razor-tooth rows.

Meanwhile, at the lowest parts of the Atacama Trench, scientists found a new deep-sea predator species called Dulcibella camanchaca.

This amphipod, which exists at an almost 8,000-meter depth, is a ghostly white animal that lives where even the sun is reluctant to illuminate.

Thus, just as we think we have a grasp on Earth's strangest creatures, the deep sea comes rolling in with something that appears to have skipped a few million years of evolution just to scare us half to death.

Edited by Sroban Ghosh
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