Bioluminescence might seem uncommon, even alien. But biologists think organisms evolved the ability to light up the dark as many as 50 different times, sending tendrils of self-powered luminosity coursing through the tree of life, from fireflies and vampire squids to lantern sharks and foxfire, a fungus found in rotting wood.

Despite all this diversity, the general rules stay the same. Glowing in the dark or the deep takes two ingredients. You need some sort of luciferin, a molecule that can emit light. And you need an enzyme, luciferase, to trigger that reaction like the snapping of a glowstick.

Some creatures delegate this chemistry to symbiotic bacteria. Others possess the genes to make their own versions of luciferin and luciferase. But then there’s the golden sweeper, a reef fish that evolved a trick that hasn’t been seen anywhere else, according to a study published Wednesday in Science Advances: It just gobbles up bioluminescent prey and borrows the entire kit.

“If you can steal an already established, sophisticated system by eating somebody else, that’s way easier,” said Manabu Bessho-Uehara, a postdoctoral scholar at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.