Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

Parasite tongue

This fish has a strange tongue; a tongue with two eyes and a mouth. In fact, a crustacean is the tongue of this fish: Cymothoa exigua isopod.

There are several crustacean isopods that have adopted the parasitic strategy, but C. exigua is perhaps the most curious. He enters by the gills and grasps the tongue of the fish; and he begins to drink of its blood. The blood that should feed the tongue of the fish feeds the parasite, and the tongue, without food, atrophy until it almost disappears. The parasite remains clinging to the muscle at the base of the tongue, transformed into a substitute tongue.

The new tongue coming from the outside performs the same function as the previous tongue. And apparently it does not cause any other damage to the fish.