What parasite eats fish tongue?
tongue-eating louse
The buglike isopod, also called a tongue biter or tongue-eating louse, keeps sucking its blood meals from a fish’s tongue until the entire structure withers away. Then the true horror begins, as the parasite assumes the organ’s place in the still-living fish’s mouth.
Where can you find Cymothoa Exigua?
Cymothoa exigua, a parasitic sea louse, is like something out of Aliens. It inhabits the waters of the eastern Pacific, stretching along the West Coast of the Americas from California to Peru.
Can fish get rid of Cymothoa Exigua?
What is left after this process is compete is a rather large crustacean, securely held to the fish’s (now destroyed) organ. As unpleasant as this must be, the process does not kill the fish; on the contrary, the fish actually starts to use the parasite as a pseudo-tongue–think of it as a kind of an organic prosthetic.
Is the tongue-eating louse endangered?
Not extinct
Tongue-eating louse/Extinction status
What kind of fish has a tongue?
The tongue of a fish is formed from a fold in the floor of the mouth. In some species of bony fishes the tongue has teeth which help to hold prey items. The name of one genus of argentinid fish, Glossanodon, literally means ‘tongue teeth’. The tongue of the lamprey can be protruded from the mouth.
What kind of parasite eats the tongue of a fish?
A parasitic marine isopod also known as the tongue-eating louse. Cymothoa exigua, or the tongue-eating louse, is a parasitic isopod of the family Cymothoidae. This parasite enters fish through the gills, and then attaches itself to the fish’s tongue.
What is the name of the tongue eating louse?
Cymothoa exigua. Cymothoa exigua, or the tongue-eating louse, is a parasitic isopod of the family Cymothoidae. This parasite enters fish through the gills.
How does a Cymothoa parasite replace the tongue?
The parasite then replaces the fish’s tongue by attaching its own body to the muscles of the tongue stub. It appears that the parasite does not cause much other damage to the host fish, but it has been reported by Lanzing and O’Connor (1975) that infested fish with two or more of the parasites are usually underweight.
What happens when a fish loses its tongue?
As the parasite grows, less and less blood reaches the tongue and eventually the organ atrophies. The parasite then replaces the fish’s tongue by attaching its own body to the muscles of the tongue stub.
