whats the deal with all the new strange ass looking sea creatures?

This is a result of predative adaptation. At the absolute dark the speed (aerodynamic shape) has no advantage, instead of it it's better, when you appear larger, then you're really are = from this the tufty appearance of sea floor creatures follows. Most of predators are highly specialized to their prey, which leads into excessive mutations of color and shape of prey. If something eats you, when you're red, you can switch color into green or you can develop stripes and so on.. From this mechanism the large variability of sea floor life follows.