Name: The Tongue-Eating Parasite
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Meet the tongue-eating isopod, Cymothoa exigua. This marine parasite feasts on a fish&#x27;s tongue and then becomes its tongue. You&#x27;ll never eat seafood again.

Gross science: This parasite crawls into a fish's mouth and replaces its tongue. Enough said.

Gross science: This parasite crawls into a fish&#x27;s mouth and replaces its tongue. Enough said.

Produced, edited, and animated by  Anna Rothschild    Production Assistant  Allison Eck    Special Thanks  Stefanie Kaiser    Original Footage  © WGBH Educational Foundation 2013    ADDITIONAL MEDIA CREDITS    (Ceratothoa sp in Blacktail)  Host: Diplodus sargus sargus (common names: blacktail or white seabream)   Locality: Tsitsikamma National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa  © Nico Smit

Gross science: This parasite crawls into a fish’s mouth and replaces its tongue. 

The Tongue-Eating Parasite

Tongue-Eating Parasite

Nature

The Tongue-Eating ParasitePosted: March 1, 2013Narrator: I&#x27;m about to introduce you to one of the grossest creatures on earth—it&#x27;s the tongue-eating isopod, Cymothoa exigua .Isopods are crustaceans, like lobsters and crabs. This particular isopod happens to live in the ocean and is a parasite. It&#x27;s a sort of…marine louse. Only it&#x27;s way creepier.Anyway, the first crazy thing to know about these guys is that they&#x27;re what&#x27;s called &quot;protandric hermaphrodites.&quot; That means that when they&#x27;re adults, the males can become females. These isopods infest fish, so what happens is that a number of juveniles enter through the fish&#x27;s gills, and all mature into males. Then, one of the isopods will become a female and that&#x27;s when everything gets really freaky.The female will crawl into the fish&#x27;s mouth, and attach herself to the base of the fish&#x27;s tongue using her back legs. Then, she&#x27;ll suck blood from the tongue until it withers and dies. This procedure is quite unpleasant for the fish, but it doesn&#x27;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&#x27;s mouth, sucking its blood, or feeding on fish mucus.We don&#x27;t know a ton about the parasite&#x27;s life cycle, but based on other mouth-infesting isopods (and yes, there are others) the female may even mate while in the fish&#x27;s mouth with male isopods living in the fish&#x27;s gill chamber!I know this doesn&#x27;t sound real, so here is a photograph of a mouth-infesting isopod to prove it.Thankfully, these guys don&#x27;t infest humans. But, they do infest fish that we eat. Cymothoa exigua has a preference for snapper, and other mouth infesting isopods prey upon mahi mahi or barramundi. So, next time you&#x27;re at the grocery store, take a look inside that red snapper&#x27;s mouth. You might find a tasty treat inside.

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