In Malaysia, an angler caught a bizarre-looking fish which had what seemed to be human-like teeth and shared the photograph of his catch on social media, sparking widespread attention and quickly became viral.
Human fish?
Twitter users immediately shared the image and speculated on what type of fish it was or if it was a real photo or if it was edited.
The fish was discovered to be a type of toothy fish called "triggerfish" and is a common species of brightly colored fish found in Malaysian waters, as reported by Mirror UK.
Triggerfish mainly make their homes in tropical or subtropical waters. The males of the species are considered extremely territorial and aggressive. They will protect their home by charging at intruders and utilizing their set of teeth as weapons when battling against crabs and other sea creatures.
On the other hand, the angler's photograph has become an online sensation as social media users continued to share the image and add their edits, giving the fish a significant makeover.
One Twitter user gave the eerie-looking fish digital eyelashes to compliment its full set of mandibles.
Surprisingly, the triggerfish is not the only type of fish that has unique denticles. Previously, a school teacher residing in West Papua discovered an odd-looking fish that had similar human teeth.
The teacher stated he found the fish when he was fishing beside the village docks in his hometown in Indonesia. He then gave it to his student, Ahmad Seseray, who initially planned to give it to his mother for dinner.
Looking inside the animal's mouth, however, gave Ahmad quite a shock to see that the creature had a full set of human-like teeth. The strange fish found in West Papua was believed to be a type of sea creature known as the emperor fish.
Hometown
According to Metro UK, the triggerfish found in Malaysia are considered highly sought after for aquarium trade purposes, leading fishers in the area to hunt them to near-extinction.
Marine experts from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) confirmed that the creature was a Blackpatch triggerfish, due to its unique orange side-stripe.
One spokesman for WWF told reporters that the Blackpatch triggerfish is a wide-known species and is commonly found from the islands of Seychelles to the Great Barrier Reef.
However, despite the photograph going viral since its uploader posted it on social media, one marine expert claims that the image was forged.
Marine ecologist at the University of Technology, Sydney, David Booth, told reporters that the creature is also famous for attacking divers who stray too close to their nests. The expert added the fish has incredibly powerful teeth that are strong enough to bite a human's fingers off.
Booth noted that the species' teeth are large but do not resemble the human teeth as portrayed in the image, leading him to believe that the user posted it after forging the photograph, as reported by Indian Express.
The doubts surrounding the authenticity of the photo did not stop social media users from spreading and making fun of the fish; however, the post continued to grow viral and catch attention.
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