The Tongue-Eating Parasite

Gross science: This parasite crawls into a fish's mouth and replaces its tongue. Enough said.

Note: In this video, we refer to the parasites as "protoandritic." The real word is "protandric." We take accuracy very seriously and we apologize for the error. Thank you to the viewer who pointed this out.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Produced, edited, and animated by
Anna Rothschild

Production Assistant
Allison Eck

Special Thanks
Stefanie Kaiser

Original Footage
© WGBH Educational Foundation 2013

ADDITIONAL MEDIA CREDITS

(Ceratothoa sp in Blacktail)
Host: Diplodus sargus sargus (common names: blacktail or white seabream)
Locality: Tsitsikamma National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa
© Nico Smit

Freesound/tommorawe (Public Domain)

Freesound/StateAardvark (CC BY-NC 3.0)

Woman Scream
Freesound/sironboy (CC BY 3.0)

Freesound/Timre (CC BY-NC 3.0)

[dlanoraknox]

i've never been more grateful to not be a fish.

[kylewp]

And all of a sudden, I became intensely aware of my tongue.

[maxwellminer]

If this had a human equivalent I would never leave my house.

[sephiroth]

In my zoology course during high school, our group did a fish dissection and it had one of these in it, it was crazy learning about it unintentionally

[phongers]

I thought this was a short documentary on my ex girlfriend lol

[dgls]

You should have a disclaimer for headphone users, RIP

[JustSomeGuyLV]

I'm moving to live on Venus - there's nothing left to burn with fire. It's safe place to live on.

[JC-whgy]

Does anybody else's tongue feel tingly?

[Liksterr]

The reason we don’t have these kinds for humans is because we can remove them quite easily and it’s hard for things like that to attach without us knowing.

[Dead_Fish]

when i worked at a fishmongers i used to find these in the mouths of sea bass all the time! i always wondered what the hell they were!

[someguywithaquestionablese]

the amount of disrespect these parasites have....mating in the fish's mouth smh

[pypylyly]

Who came here because of zacksfilms? 😅

[SofiesRaun]

Please don't let me become a fish with mating parasites as tongue in my next life!

[borthwey]

It could actually save the fish from being hooked in line fishing. The only hooked one would be the parasite, and the line would remove the parasite from the fish.

[kingkirby]

Don't infect humans my ass. I bet if one of those things got in someone's mouth, it's not going to let down a good opportunity...

[maribeldeleon]

I love the way and the little pictures you used to explain this ordeal in a fish mouth. You explained it perfectly, but I love the little parasites with the little pink and blue bows, and the cute extrusions they were making. Your so funny. God bless you for making me laugh on a Sunday morning. 😂

[DaiMonAlex]

a tasty threat inside? i might never buy fish again because of her

[AdenosinePush]

Wow. I'm even more glad I'm a human being simply because there's nothing that can have sex in my mouth. Thanks NOVA.

[flexcrazyfun]

You still think God made all the creatures?! Sitting up in the clouds, thinking about 2 fish bugs mating inside of another fish's mouth?!

[spygaming]

My favorite part is when the parasites bust down in a musical number.