This Terrifyingly Cute Parasite Eats Tongues

South African scientists have documented a new species in the Ceratothoa genus that takes up residence in fish mouths.

By Gabe Allen
Feb 8, 2022 5:10 PM
Ceratothoa oestroides
Infective stages (pulli) extracted from the marsupium of the adult female of Ceratothoa oestroides (credit: Ivona Mladineo/Wikimedia Commons)

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On a sunny day last summer, marine conservation science graduate student Don Marx was in his happy place — in a boat with a rod and reel in hand. The vessel drifted a few miles off shore near Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of the African continent. As a marine biology nerd and South African local, Marx knew the waters below him housed a particularly diverse ecosystem. Along this coastline, the cold, nutrient-rich water from the Arctic Ocean mixes with the life-giving warmth of the Indian Ocean, creating a hotspot for endemic species. 

When he pulled in the next fish, Marx was pleased to see that it was a carpenter seabream, a near-threatened carnivorous fish. When he opened the creature’s mouth to pull the hook out, his day got a whole lot more interesting.

“Nothing could really prepare me for the moment I opened the carpenter’s mouth and saw this blue-eyed alien with a mustache staring back at me,” Marx told The Sun

A Ceratothoa oestroides, a relative of C. springbok, in the mouth of a European sea bass. (Credit: Ivona Mladineo/Wikimedia Commons)
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