Kind: captions
Language: en
[Music]
[Applause]
I'm about to introduce you to one of the
grossest creatures on earth it's the
tongue eating isopod sigh Misawa exigua
isopods our crustaceans like lobsters
and crabs this particular ice pod
happens to live in the ocean and is a
parasite it's a sort of marine louse
only it's way creepier hey anyway the
first crazy thing to know about these
guys is that they're what's called proto
and Riddick hermaphrodites that means
that when they're adults
the male's can become females these
isopods infest fish so what happens is
that a number of juveniles enter through
the fish's gills and all mature into
males then one of the isopods will
become a female and that's when things
get really freaky the female will crawl
into the fish's mouth and attach herself
to the base of the fish's tongue using
her back legs then she'll suck blood
from the tongue until it withers and
dives this procedure is quite unpleasant
for the fish but it doesn't kill it in
fact it starts using the parasite like a
prosthetic tongue meanwhile the isopod
just continues to hang out in the fish's
mouth sucking its blood or feeding on
fish mucus yes we don't know a ton about
the parasites life cycle but based on
other mouth and festa isopods and yes
there are others the female may even
mate while in the fish's mouth with male
isopods living in the fish's guild
chamber I know this doesn't sound real
so here's a photograph of a mouth
infesting isopod to prove it
[Music]
thankfully these guys don't invest
humans but they do infest fish that we
eat Saima so exigua has a preference for
snapper and other mouths infesting
isopods prey upon mahi-mahi
were barramundi so the next time you're
at the grocery store
look inside that red snappers mouth
might find a tasty treat inside
[Music]