Some Isopods are parasitic.
This is Cymothoa exigua, a parasitic isopod that has a nasty habit of attaching to fishes tongues.
This parasite enters fish through the gills, and then attaches itself at the base of the fish’s tongue. The female attaches to the tongue and the male attaches on the gill arches beneath and behind the female. Females are 8–29 millimetres (0.3–1.1 in) long and 4–14 mm (0.16–0.55 in) in maximum width. Males are approximately 7.5–15 mm (0.3–0.6 in) long and 3–7 mm (0.12–0.28 in) wide. It extracts blood through the claws on its front, causing the tongue to atrophy from lack of blood. The parasite then replaces the fish’s tongue by attaching its own body to the muscles of the tongue stub. The fish is able to use the parasite just like a normal tongue. It appears that the parasite does not cause any other damage to the host fish. Once C. exigua replaces the tongue, some feed on the host’s blood and many others feed on fish mucus. This is the only known case of a parasite functionally replacing a host organ. There are many species of Cymothoa, but only C. exigua is known to consume and replace its host’s tongue.
(Via Wikipedia)
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Man I remember when my boyfriend told me about this. I was like WHAT NO GOD NO PLEASE STOP. Might as well reblog this...
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NO
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)8
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kawro reblogged this from thesaura and added:
Yeah.. I’m not going to eat fish again.. ever.
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burnticeslushie reblogged this from talikira and added:
Reminds me of the xenomorph’s tongue in Alien. =P
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scandals-r-us reblogged this from talikira and added:
Poor babies!!!! :c
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NOPE
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My goal in life is to catch a fish with this well not really a goal but I want it to happen
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JESUS F’N CHRISTTHASKFLHDSKLGHADSKLGNHSADKLG
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Oh my god, This Book Is Full of Spiders is REAL.
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