You guys will like this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4200000/newsid_4209000/4209004.stm

Fish-head stew anyone?

Wow man that is some seriously sci-fi inducing stuff!

What's the limit on those?

Sounds good ... over rice!

-Allen

....a tongue that has a mind of it's own......NICE  

Imagine lipping a fish and the tounge bites your thumb!

Is this real? I sense internet hoax... or is my paranoia acting up again?

Is this real? I sense internet hoax... or is my paranoia acting up again?

Yeah, it's written in a very non-formal way - "a gross creature..."
I don't know.

It is the kids bbc site so I think it is real, but explains the "ewww gross" language. Plus a google for "cymothoa exigua" turns up this scientific looking page:

http://tolweb.org/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/crustacea/isopoda/accessory/caguide/flabellifera.html

This page is pretty funny as well.

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

I saw a couple of things that looked just like that in a baby lingcods mouth the other day, i caught it near ano nuevo. There werent as big as that but they were there.

The bugs are usually found off the coast of California, so it's possible the fish was imported to the UK.

I will be keeping my eye out.

Now that is freaky. I have to check the frozen fish heads I have to check for them. Wonder if they will come back to life and search for a new host once the heads thaw out?

-Brian

For those that doubt, oh, it's very real.  I think the reason it made the news is that they found it in England for the first time.

Basically, it's an isopod (you often find it's relatives on fish gills) that eats the fish's tongue and replaces it.  Then later when the fish eats, it uses the isopod as a tongue to mush up some food and the isopod eats some of the food left behind in the mouth.

What really freaks me out are the parasites that affect a hosts behavior.  There are worms that get into amphipods (another little crustacean) that makes them swim on the surface of the water instead of staying under rocks.  This makes them vulnerable to ducks which are the secondary hosts for the parasite.

Brian

The life cycle of parasites is so just plain yucky.  Didn't know about these, kinda wish I didn't  

They're not guinea worms...  http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~parasite/dracunculus.html

check this out.....a parasite called copepod that "hangs out"  on the eye ball of a greenland shark....that's gotta suck  


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.postmodern.com/%7Efi/sharkpics/ellis/green.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.postmodern.com/%7Efi/sharkpics/ellis/greenlan.htm&h=392&w=498&sz=44&tbnid=yOcc9aCo-7YJ:&tbnh=99&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgreenland%2Bshark%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D&oi=imagesr&start=2