What Exactly is: Stargazer | The Gaping Gaze

Added: 2026-06-06

[00:00:00]Summer holiday will start soon enough, and that would be a good time to camp.

[00:00:04]While camping, you might notice how amazing the night sky without so much light pollution is. Stargazing is quite fun, after all, especially if you know what you are looking at. That's why some people become stargazers. However, the stargazers that we're going to talk about are not exactly gazing at stars.

[00:00:23]People find stargazers to be interesting due to how they look, but trust me, they are more interesting than just the way they look. So, let me bring up the question. What exactly is stargazer?

[00:00:37]Stargazers are fishes, bony fishes to be precise. They are ray-finned fishes, and to be a little bit more specific, they are teleosts.

[00:00:47]By the way, so far, this still encompasses the majority of extant fishes. Oh, and so far, I didn't use any specific taxonomic rank for any of the groups because there are so many versions of fish taxonomic classification. You could find a different taxonomic rank placement for these groups on each article you might stumble upon. I suppose ichthyologists still haven't reached a consensus after all these times, which is understandable considering how complicated the systematics of fish could be. Oh, and the uncertainties are not even over yet.

[00:01:21]Some articles place stargazers in the Perciformes order, which is the biggest order of fish, by the way. It was considered a wastebasket on it at some point. Some species had been moved away after several analyses, and yet this order is still the biggest order of fish. But anyway, some other sources place stargazers in the Labriformes order, together with the wrasses and other related fishes, which traditionally belong to the Perciformes order. I typically revert to worms when talking about marine species, and Worms listed stargazers in the Perciformes order. So, at least for the sake of this video I'll also list them as members of the perky for my sword or but anyway stargazers themselves are all members of the Uranus copy die family Uranus means sky just like the Titan with the name by the way pretty easy to remember meanwhile scopus basically means to see or to look and so their name basically means those who look at the sky aka sky gazers and guess what's in the sky well a lot of things but stars are there hence their common name stargazers they got this name because their eyes are oriented upwards and they are quote unquote gazing at the sky all the time there are several genera in this family worms listed eight valid genera some of these genera are also named after the same thing basically astroscopus means stargazer selenoscopus means moon gazer and that's basically it I suppose ichthyoscopus means fish gazer which is not a sky object pleuroscopus means side gazer which I'll talk about later zenocephalus means weird head I think genyagnus means pure jaw or maybe pure face and I'm not sure what cathetos means but stoma means mouth so yeah all of them have scientific names that are talking about their head well not exactly but kind of which is quite something while genyagnus pleuroscopus and selenoscopus each only has one species the other genera have multiple species so all in all I would say stargazer is a relatively diverse group of fishes they can be found all around the world mostly in the tropical and subtropical seas but also towards the temperate seas oh and this distribution data is not exactly representative of their actual distribution because this is based on individual observation while some of them can be found towards the deep sea, not a lot of people could and would dive into the deep sea. So, yeah.

[00:03:58]Next, let's talk about their morphology.

[00:04:01]But before that, stargazers could vary in sizes. Some of them are moderately sized, only around 20 cm long. Meanwhile, some of them can be quite big. The giant stargazer, Kathetostoma giganteum, are known to reach 90 cm long.

[00:04:24]They are typically light brownish, but some are darker, while some can be yellowish.

[00:04:29]Their front half are widened and slightly flattened, especially towards the head. Like I said earlier, they got their name from the fact that their eyes are oriented upwards, positioned on top of their head like this. However, Pleuroscopus has a slightly more roundish head, and their eyes are still slightly oriented sideways, which is why they are called Pleuroscopus, side-gazers, because they are stargazers, but their eyes are somewhat sideways.

[00:04:57]Not only are their eyes oriented upwards, their mouth is also oriented upwards. They have a big and wide gape lined with many sharp teeth. Some have moderately sized teeth, while some are, well, like this. I suppose this kind of thing is what many people find creepy, you know, the long and thin teeth, like the ones in some deep-sea fishes. Oh, and that creature in Iron Lung, I suppose. But actually, those kinds of teeth are more often than not just used as a trapdoor, preventing the prey from escaping, not a weapon to shred or something like that. But anyway, some stargazers have exceptionally noticeable nostrils because they are encircled with ridges, both the front and rear nostrils. Oh, and yeah, if you didn't know, many fishes actually have two pairs of nostrils, so four instead of two.

[00:05:49]Stargazers have all the fins that most fishes have, but the orientations are quite unique. Their pectoral fins are positioned slightly lower. The pectoral fins themselves can be quite wide when spread.

[00:06:01]The pelvic fins are positioned forward, located beneath their head, which is quite unique among fishes, but not exactly exclusive to them.

[00:06:10]Their dorsal and anal fin are quite long. They also have a moderate caudal fin.

[00:06:15]Naturally, all of these morphological traits correlate to their ecology, so let's talk about it.

[00:06:23]Like I hinted earlier, while some stargazers can be found in shallow waters, some of them can be found in the deeper ocean. But still, all of them typically stay near the bottom.

[00:06:33]They do use their pectoral and caudal fins to swim, but they are not exceptionally good at it. Most of the time, they burrow. Their fins are that way because they are mostly used for digging the substrate, and stargazers are very good at it. They can burrow quickly. Their coloration helps them in blending with the substrate. When burrowing, most of their body is underneath the substrate, except the top of their head. And that's exactly why their eyes and mouth are oriented upwards on top of their head. They can also protrude their eyes to help them observe their surrounding. And yeah, this is how they spend most of their time.

[00:07:12]When trying to ambush their prey, they can use their tongue as a lure. Some species could also use the fleshy part of their mouth to do so.

[00:07:20]When a prey approach, the stargazer will pounce and swallows the prey. They are generally carnivores that will eat whatever animals that they can swallow.

[00:07:29]I mean, they are ambush predator after all. They couldn't exactly afford to be picky eaters with that lifestyle.

[00:07:35]One of the more unique things about them, at least in my opinion, is how they have electric organ. More specifically, only those in the genus Astroscopus and Uranoscopus have it, and perhaps not even in all species.

[00:07:49]Unlike other electrogenic fishes though, they don't have electroreceptor organ, which means they couldn't sense their own electric discharge. Hence, they couldn't use it for electrolocation or communication. So, yeah, less sophisticated than other electric fishes, but having a stun gun is already quite neat, huh? They could use it to elect or kill their prey when ambushing them. Or they could also use it to defend themselves from predator. Or, you know, a curious human, for example.

[00:08:18]Another interesting fact is Astroscopus and Uranoscopus have different kinds of electric organ. Both still develop from muscle, of course, but Astroscopus have it behind their eyes, while Uranoscopus developed it from their sonic muscles.

[00:08:34]By the way, sonic muscles are a group of muscle in fish that could generate sound, usually near their swim bladder.

[00:08:40]And yeah, I just want to clarify because I think you wouldn't get the result you want if you type sonic muscle on Google.

[00:08:49]But anyway, this fact could indicate each of them have evolved their electric organ independently, which is also interesting, of course. But I don't think we got a conclusive answer for this yet. But wait, that's not the only defensive weapon they got. They also have spikes behind their operculum, just above their pectoral fins, that could be protruded like this.

[00:09:11]These spikes connect to their venom gland. Hence, those that try to swallow them will get stabbed and suffer from the envenomation. Oh, and of course, that applies to curious yet unlucky human that tries to grab them, too.

[00:09:25]I say it unlucky because you would be fine as long as you don't get stabbed by the spikes.

[00:09:31]Oh, and even though they have multiple ways of defending themselves, which could sound dangerous, people still eat them. Humans being human, I guess. But anyway, their reproduction is not fully understood yet. Though, we do know that they release small eggs that will float upwards. Larvae are typically blackish and lives really in the water column.

[00:09:52]As they develop, they will move to the bottom before finally leaving the benthic life of their adult form.

[00:09:59]And yeah, that is stargazer. I've seen a lot of articles calling them the ugliest fish, but I honestly I don't see the vision. I personally think they look fine. If people would move on from calling them ugly and starts taking interest on other aspects of them, that would be nice. We still have a lot of unanswered question about them after all.

[00:10:20]>> [music] >> But for now, let's just learn what is known.

[00:10:23]And that's [music] all for now.

[00:10:26]Oh, by the way, there was an interesting fossil discovery where a stargazer skull fossil was found with fecal pellets inside their skull cavity. It's not exactly what it seems, so I would recommend reading the publication.

[00:10:39]Anyway, enjoy your day.