Watch out for the tongue biter, unless you want a little animal to live in your mouth and replace your tongue. (Photo at right, yeah I had to post it). No, not just a bad kisser, or a child with sharp teeth, this tongue biter is a parasitic louse that eats the tongue of a host fish and then settles into place and replaces the fish's tongue.
It seems that the tongue biter draws blood from an artery in the host fish, and also controls the fish's eating and gathers food bits that it steals from the host. Yuck.
The tongue biter was found in Australia in a recent ocean research expedition, along with many other strange things.
See you knew you were drawn to the ocean, and especially to an ocean blog that brings you all the news that is too messed up to find anywhere else. Can you really believe that that fish has an animal living in place of it's tongue? Tweet
