Tongue eating Crouse...
 

Tonuge eating Crouse...aka...Cymothoa exigua


I was out fishing in the sound this weekend for big 50"+ drum and while catching bait I happen to come across this little guy. Odd to find him in a menhaden that was about 5-6" long. I have thought these were more of an ocean fish crustacean and surprised to pull one from the back sound. Not knowing a lot about them I did a Google search and found out these little guys actually are the only known thing to eat an organ and then become that organ. Crazy how they enter the fish and then attach to the tongue to suck the blood out of it. They sucks the fishes tongue till it dies and then they replace the tongue with its self. The Crouse attaches where the tongue once was and then the fish uses it as an tongue. Pic below of the one I pulled out of the fishes mouth at the bottom. Had to rip it out as it was attached well. Its little black eyes were just staring at me out the fishes mouth. Scary little bugger. How would you like to have this for a tongue? Not sure how common they are so I thought I would post about it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=327-bwMQI-Y


http://www.cc.com/video-clips/t0b3f4...ating-parasite

Wonder if they make good bait?

It says they can smell the fish and then they jump up to try and enter the fishes mouth. Imagine a bait that smells the fish and goes to the fish mouth. All you would have to do is set the hook once it enters. It also says they know the smell of the type of fish they came from and they try to go back to the same species. So if you want to catch grouper get a crouse from a grouper and not only will it find the fish, it will find the correct species...

Target locked!

Damn freaky stuff in nature.

I've seen'em before, but did not know the back story. thanks

Connor

Find them quite often in ballyhoo.