Tongue-Eating Bug Found in Fish

[PsychicWarVeteran]

It's a strange world, kids.

A gross creature which gobbles up a fish's tongue and then replaces it with its own body has been found in Britain for the first time.

The bug - which has the scientific name cymothoa exigua - was discovered inside the mouth of a red snapper bought from a London fishmonger.

The 3.5cm creature had grabbed onto the fish's tongue and slowly ate away at it until only a stub was left.

It then latched onto the stub and became the fish's "replacement tongue".

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/ne...00/4209004.stm

Thankfully, it seems to only like fish tongues.

[Mikey_C]

All together now:

http://www.113.d2g.com/orange-pages/lyrics/umh147.htm

[xidrep]

Oh, man! Do sharks get them? It's not in my Gastroenteric Parasites of Teleosts, even though it is. Nasty little bugger.

[L'Etranger]

Re: Tongue-Eating Bug Found in Fish

...


Thankfully, it seems to only like fish tongues.

Hmmmm, I don't know ....!
I can think of a handful of politicians that I now wish were fish!

[PsychicWarVeteran]

More info:

"Cymothoa exigua, a crustacean, is the only known parasite that effectively replaces a body organ. It makes its home in the mouth of a fish, where it drains blood from the tongue until it withers and dies. It attaches itself to the remaining stub and the fish is actually able to utilize it as a replacement tongue to draw in and manipulate food, which the parasite shares."


http://www.bogleech.com/bio-para.html

Does that help at all, Perdix? :)

...Thankfully, it seems to only like fish tongues.

I can think of a handful of politicians that I now wish were fish!

:lol: Agreed!

[Typhoid_Mary]

:yuck:

[lemec]

That is pretty strange. Does anyone remember a fews years ago when Japanese fishermen caught a large creature that looked like a dinosaur in their net? What was that thing? I never heard any more about it. Every once in awhile sombody will find a fish that they thought was extinct.

Speaking of strange aquatic creatures, what happened to those fish that could walk on land and were a danger to the environment?

[L'Etranger]

I don't know if he has gills, but you aren't incidently speaking of Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Just couldn't resist ...

[manmiles]

That is weird...sick and weird. That could be out of an episode of the Outer Limits if it did that to humans.

[spaced_moorcock]

8O