I’ve caught a few freshwater fish with leeches, and seen a few pictures from friends of Musky with large ulcers, but I’ve never seen anything like this. One things for sure the next time I catch a fish I’ll be looking in their mouth for one of these buggers. You can find more information and pictures on the Australian Museum Fish Site.
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.
Link via Boing Boing
They look very similar to a parasite that lodges in the mouth of menhaden, a common baitfish here in Florida. These little crustaceans lodge on the roof of the mouth, but look very similar to these things. NASTY as all get out! Poor little mackerel!
Awesome information though, thanks for sharing!
[...] covered the tongue eating fish parasite (Cymothoa Exigua) before and it’s pretty safe to say we all agree it’s pretty gross looking. But how [...]