I am one that tries to find the beauty in everything. Sometimes, that loveliness can be quite hidden but after a bit of observation, it can be found. It may not be an outward appearance sort of beauty but rather an inner beauty that becomes apparent. Still, today, I found something UGLY! I mean...UGLY. UGLY! In fact, even though I sat and watched the critter for nigh on a half hour, I could not, for the life of me, find even a bit of attractiveness. It was just ugly in so many ways.
The critter that caught my attention today, has done so in the past, as well. Usually, I become aware of the critter's presence when it bites me. That is not fun. Being bitten by something that eats the body organs of other critters sort of gives me the heebie-jeebies, to say the least. A Cymothoa exigua or tongue-eating louse decided that my finger must taste mighty fine because it latched onto it and refused to let go. I had caught minnows for Moe, the heron, and inadvertently picked up one that had the louse on it. Ouch! Those things hurt! So, I had to study the critter for a bit....before I smashed it.
The tongue-eating louse is a weird critter. They are born as males and reside in the gills of certain fish (in today's case, menhaden). They grow by feeding on tidbits of what the fish eats. Once they become full grown, some have the ability to change sexes to become a females. (The one today was definitely a female and I will explain that later.) Weird...but it gets weirder! Once the guy becomes a gal, she crawls up from the gills to the throat of the host fish and latches onto the tongue. She makes a small incision in the base of the tongue and starts to drink the blood. This causes the fish's tongue to dry up and fall off but the story does not end there! The evil-hearted louse remains latched onto the stub of a tongue and literally becomes a working organ of the fish. The louse acts as a tongue and feeds upon whatever the fish eats.
Now that female is full grown and has her funky little "home" and a steady job, those lackadaisical males that are left in the gills, decide to mate with her so this whole scene can be repeated. Once she becomes pregnant, she eats to support her growing body until it is time to give birth. She gives birth to a bunch of little male critters that climb into the gills of the fish. In the case of my critter, she was definitely a female. If you look closely at her extended belly, you can actually see her babies through the stretched skin. She was getting ready to give birth! No matter what, you cannot tell me there is beauty within that critter! It bites! It eats tongues! It is just down right ugly!!
They are back. Maybe they never left but it seems that late fall is when their appearance becomes known to me. More oft than not, it is this time of year when I encounter and invariably get bitten by the critters. I am talking about the Cymothoa exigua which is a long name for a tiny crustacean. Besides the obvious pain involved in its bite, it is the way this crustacean lives that makes it terrifying.
The Cymothoa exigua is actually parasite of fish. This tiny crustacean crawls into a fish's mouth and attaches itself to the tongue. Once there, it draws blood from the fish and feeds. Having the blood flow stopped, the tongue soon atrophies and fall off. Not fun. But! This little stinker then fully attaches itself and "becomes" the fish's tongue. That way the host fish can still feed and the parasite can remain inside for its whole life or that of the fish...whichever comes first. Other than the obvious aggravation of having a parasite inside your mouth that you cannot remove (either because you cannot reach it or if you do remove it, you have no tongue and will die), there seems to be no side effects to the fish.
There are side effects to me, however, as those things bite...hard! They are vicious little rascals! I encounter most of them in my bait bucket. This time of year, just about every menhaden out there has one of these as their tongue. Well, let a minnow die in the bait bucket and the parasite immediately detaches itself and goes on the search of a new host. Since all of the other minnows already house their very own ugly beast, the critter searches for the next best thing...usually my hand. The critter will latch onto your skin and not let go! Not only do they hurt but the sheer terror of having something that is so creepy embedded on your finger is enough to send a normally sane person into a round of fits. This afternoon, I was on the pier, shaking my hand like a crazy woman!
I had just caught a small redfish. After unhooking it and releasing it, I reached down to rinse my hand in the bait bucket. At the same time, my other line started whipping out. Not thinking, I grabbed the pole with one hand and rinsed the other. Geez! The parasite latched onto my finger. Now I was in a fine fix! A fish on the line being held with the left hand and a critter attached to the finger on my right. No matter how much I shook that hand, the parasite was not about to let go. Ouch!!! That thing hurt! Finally, I had the good sense to rub my hand against the pier post to dislodge the wee beast! Whew! All of that and the fish on the pole was nothing but a catfish! That did it. Fishing came to a halt for the day.
Yep, it sounds like the title of some horror movie but there are times that you just can't make up this stuff. As terrifying as it sounds, this critter is real and it does eat tongues. It, also, then lives on in the mouth and does something even more wild and bizarre. The critter actually takes over the role of the tongue. Yep.....ewwww!
Son and I decided to take a break from our grass-cutting chores and go fishing. I had a hankering for another redfish and I sure was not going to catch one with the weedeater. The pier was calling so we just heeded that call no matter how much we really would have rather cut grass. Once there, he threw the net for a few minnows to use as bait. The menhaden were sparse and it took a number of throws to get enough or, at least, what we thought we would need. Turns out, we should have stayed back with our chores. Nary a fish took our bait. Finally, we decided to return up the hillside. Just as he was unhooking the poor dead minnow, I noticed something fall down upon his jeans' leg. Hmmm? That was not good. I have seen these things far too many times before. They hurt! Back in the day, Pop told us that they were some form of a leech. Well, they do, indeed, act like one because the critters latch onto a finger and just won't let go! Son, being the calm person he is, just picked the critter up and inspected it. "Hey, you need to get a picture of this guy." he informed me. So I did.
Traipsing back up the hillside, our conversation turned to just exactly what was this critter. It really did not look like a leech. This called for a bit of research. My studies on the critter turned up a little more information than I was comfortable knowing. Perhaps being in the dark was not such a bad thing. The critter in question is none other than a Cymothoa exigua. (Admit it now, you did not know that either!) It is commonly known as the Tongue-Eating Louse. (Admit it now, you did not really want to know that, did you?) The legends are true...there really is a tongue-eating critter out there! This parasite crawls into the fish's mouth, gnaws off the tongue leaving just a stub, attaches itself with its hind legs, and begins its life as the fish's new tongue. This allows the fish to eat but, also, allows the louse to readily feed. This, my friends, is the female of the species. The male has its gory job as well. The male attaches himself to the gills of the fish. These critters stay with the fish for the duration of their (or the fish's) life. Since Son's bait had died, the female louse abandoned the mouth and plopped out on his leg. (I am sure the louse was just as surprised as he was about this new arrangement.)
There is not a lot that can be done to prevent the infestation of the Cymothoa exiqua. The critters are in a lot of different fish but are more noticeable in the menhaden since they are small and the critter takes up most of the mouth. A lot of the fish that are taken as food actually have the parasite in their mouth but since we very rarely examine down the throat of a fish while cleaning it, we have no idea what is loitering in there! One good thing...these critters are not supposed to attack people other than in self defense. (I hope!)
Now that my eerie tale of the Tongue-eaters is told, I just ponder over the many folks that I see playing in the waters of the Bay. What other unseen critters are lurking beneath those muddy waters? Is there some just as creepy critter waiting to grasp ahold of a human? Is there anything out there aside from the obvious such as sharks, alligators, stingrays, gars, eels........ok, so that is enough to make me stay on the pier! Those Horrible Tongue-eating Critters can just keep taking up residence in the fish and leave me alone! (I have to admit, she does have neat looking eyes!)
