Brain Suckers!
Following up to Bent’s enthusiasm for all things parasitic, i saw a parasitic copepod on a goby today at Nudi Falls, this one was on a soft coral so was in a nice position to shoot near to the sand.
A Parasitic Copepod sucking the brain juice from an unsuspecting Goby – note the size of the lump on the head!
Once I took a photo or two I noticed a pulsation in the body of the Copepod which looked like a peristaltic action to take fluids (food / brain juice / magical powers) from the host. I managed to get some video of it so you can take a look below:
The Gobies had a patch of eggs, so the presence of the parasite is not detrimental enough to prevent procreation, but it stall is a pretty gruesome way to live your life! Lembeh seems to be full or parasites these days, so when you are visiting keep checking for more smaller things on the smaller thing that is living on the bigger thing.
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New Blog Feed:
- Critter Discussion – Cuttlefish Arms
- Critter Discussion – Frogfish Identification
- Creature Feature – Blue Ringed Octopus
- Creature Feature – Emperor Shrimp
- Creature Feature – Jellyfish
- Creature Feature – Reeftop Pipefish
- Creature Feature – Flying Gurnards
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- Photo Discussion – Colourful Backgrounds
- Critter Discussion – How Parasites affect Gobies
NAD-Lembeh 
that is possibly one of the freakiest videos I have seen… but very cool to see none the less – glad to see you spending more time in the water Simon. this blog helps with the shorter, colder days back in the UK!
Yeah, I noticed too last week that a lot of gobies had parasites on them. I just didn’t get any sharp pictures of them.
I have sometimes seen a little movement of the juices in the stomach/intestine/jar of the gobies but never that much. Cool! Instantaneous conversion of goby juice to copepod eggs!
Thanks for the feedback guys 🙂 I strongly recommend those Sola lights if your camera can do video.
What power Solas are you using?
Nice picture of the pennellid parasitic on gobiid fishes, which is buried in the muscles on the head,