cymothoa exigua

[limz_777]

one of a kind parasite cymothoa exigua
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a photo by dr nico smit

 

[bigbadfish711]

"It enters through the fish’s gills and uses claws to attach itself to the base of the fish’s tongue and survives by drinking blood from an artery. Once the tongue has been gotten rid of, it attaches itself as a new tongue, and manipulate’s the fish’s food and consumes the free food particles as the fish eats. Again, there is some confusion on what exactly happens: whether the louse eats the tongue, or simply causes it to atrophy due to blood loss, but the net effect is the same: the louse becomes the new tongue."