The red-lipped batfish or Galapagos batfish is a fish of unusual morphology found around the Galapagos Islands at depths of 30m or more.
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Batfish are not good swimmers; they use their highly-adapted pectorial fins to "walk" on the ocean floor. When the batfish reaches maturity, its dorsal fin becomes a single spine-like projection (thought to function primarily as a lure for prey). Like other anglerfish, the Red-Lipped Batfish has a structure on its head known as illicium. This structure is employed for attracting prey.
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Red-lipped batfish can be found around 30 m deep in the water, in the Pacific Ocean around the Galapagos Islands and south to Peru. Although, it has been noted before that a few specimens of red-lipped batfish were found in fish nets in California, but these type of sightings are extremely rare, and could very well be any other type of batfish . They are bottom dwellers, so they are usually found within the sand or ocean floor . Although they are considered shallow water forms, they occasionally come to the surface over deep water. They tend to associate themselves with the edges of reefs up to about 120 m deep
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