Hello everyone, it's "Tao Brother Blind Vernacular" time again, today to give you a nagging about a creature I encountered while fishing, giving me nausea and bad, some readers may have heard of it, but may not have seen it with their own eyes - shrunken head fish lice.
Its existence will make people feel that even if it is only a parasitic rate of 0.4 per 10,000, it will not reincarnate as a fish in the next life.
When I was fishing in the Amazon River in South America, I once hit a fish called Columbia Giant Storm, which was extremely ferocious from the appearance, a bit of a "piranha + python" feeling -
But its juvenile fish is not so intimidating, the picture below is a small giant storm I caught, is it still a little ugly and cute? But when I carried it to the shore to take a picture, I suddenly found a small white bug squirming in its mouth.
For the sake of trial, mosaic
Later, I realized that this bug was not crawling into it, but was simply a shrunken-headed fish lice parasitic in the mouth of the fish, or more strictly, not parasitic, but symbiotic.
This is very strange, is it not afraid of being swallowed by a fish?
Come, get to know this cargo, the shrunken-headed fish lice, belonging to the arthropod soft beetles, and the watermelon worms we used to play with when we were children are the same class.
Watermelon worms
The most chilling thing about the shrunken head lice is that it will parasitize the irresistible juvenile gills when the fish is very small, and then touch the tongue of the fish little by little along the gills, and absorb the blood and tissue fluid of the fish tongue through the mouth organ day after day until the fish tongue shrinks into a lump of waste protein with no organ value. The shrunken-headed fish lice then inserts its tail into the throat of the fish to play a role in fixing it, so that it replaces the position and function of the tongue, and naturally changes from parasitic to symbiotic.
Speaking of this, everyone may have a question, Brother Tao, I have never heard of fish and tongues, what is that thing used for?
Most animal tongues are used to assist in chewing and placing food, so what can the tongue of a fish do? Can the shrunken-headed fish lice take on the role of "tongue"?
Although the way fish chew is very different from ours, the role of the tongue is actually no different, most of the fish tongue is located at the root of the mouth, when eating from the side to move in a clockwise direction, convenient for the food to be quickly transported into the digestive tract, in addition, the fish tongue can also stroke oxygenated water through the mouth to the cheeks for breathing.
The movement route of the fish tongue when chewing
Fish tongue also has another important function, that is, to block the obstacle of accidental ingestion, such as "slipping" when slipping into a small stone, tongue touch, what thing? Cough ~ Twe ~
From this point of view, the function of the fish tongue is not complicated, quite basic belongs to it, and the shrunken head fish lice are fully competent.
What is even more surprising is that this cargo is still hermaphrodite, the larvae are male, the adult worm becomes a female, the male hangs on the gills of the fish, the female is coiled at the root of the tongue, if a fish is unfortunate to be parasitized by a male and a female at the same time, then the calves, the two can directly find joy in the mouth of the fish to reproduce.
Imagine having such a guy in your mouth, the ghost is not scattered but there is no way to take it, is it both terrifying and disgusting? But don't jump to conclusions, there is no harm without contrast, let's take a look at another type of parasite that parasitizes fish - fish fins.
Fishtails
Fish bristles and shrunken head fish lice, although a word difference, but the former is much more dangerous, the purpose of the fish bristles is never to coexist with the host, but directly killed, they start from the gills of the fish, all over the surface of the fish, the ventral surface has barbs, crawling and squirming process leads to a large area of the fish's body trauma, pain and itching, appetite subsidence, anxiety.
A wound caused by a torn bite
The bacteria in the water will enter the fish's body through the wound left by the fish mantle, causing infection, and the poor victim fish will most likely be eaten by the fish in the final stage of life, until an empty skeleton is left.
And I think the most ferocious parasite in the world is the crab slave, listening to the name to know that this cargo is specially picked crabs to start, juvenile crab slaves will find gaps in the crab, usually at the leg joints, and then enter the crab body through the joint gaps.
After that, the crab slave larvae will divide into multiple branched tubes to occupy the crab's body, and the main function of these thin tubes is to absorb nutrients from the crab's body for its development. So, the crab slave we see from the appearance is like this:
The picture caused discomfort and has been mosaicked
But in fact, the complete body of the crab slave has been densely packed in every inch of the crab's body, and all the nutrients have been absorbed, unable to grow independently, and even lost self-awareness, completely reduced to the puppet of the crab slave.
Breathe a sigh of relief.
What do you think? Compared with the fish and crab slaves, do you suddenly feel that the shrunken-headed fish lice are not so terrible, but there is an illusion that the drifting pirates come ashore and conform to the good?
It doesn't eat on the host like a fish mackerel, eat and drink enough to leave a blood stain, and then pat its butt and leave, looking for the next unlucky fish.
Nor will it be like a crab slave, which will completely corrode the host from flesh and soul to soul, leaving only a lifeless shell for driving.
Although the shrunken-headed fish lice rely on fish blood for survival, it is by no means blindly demanding and geezing and fishing, its damage to the fish is slow, and even from a long-term perspective, it cannot be said to be "damage", after all, in order to stabilize life, the shrunken-headed fish lice have scrupulously assumed the responsibility of the fish tongue most of the time.
In fact, this strange but highly compatible symbiotic relationship, looking for the entire biological world, only this one has no other branch, even senior biologists have to admit that from parasitism to symbiosis, the biggest question left by the shrunken head fish lice is, can we humans use our own concept of good and evil to influence or even prevent every life in nature that strives to live?
If you don't have an answer at the moment, the consequences of forcibly removing the head-scratching fish lice may provide some enlightenment:
Previously, when aquarium enthusiasts found that the love fish in their fish tank was infested by the shrunken head fish lice, they would choose to clip it out directly with forceps, but a considerable part of the fish lost their lives in the near future, because the fish lost both the tongue and the replacement of the tongue, without tongue assistance, the fish could not eat normally, but the shrunken head fish lice, after leaving the parasitic fish, can continue to find new hosts and continue to parasitize other fish.
Therefore, the current mainstream view is that if the parasitism is found early, the problem of removing the shrunken head fish lice is not large, but once the head lice have formed a complete symbiotic relationship with the fish, for the safety of the fish, it is recommended to sprinkle more fish food to ensure the nutritional supply of the head lice and fish.
Well, I am Tao Brother, love fishing can talk, like to pay attention to me, I will use the article to tell you, the world is really big.