Strange parasitic eel
Submitted by Pete F on Wed, 2023-12-27 07:43
Found what looks like a eel inside a snapper gut cavity. It's attached to the liver. Has like little claspers along its body had to literally pull it out of attachment to all the guts.
Never seen this before any ideas?
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Faulkner Family
Posts: 18049
Date Joined: 11/03/08
Don't know ow if I would be
Don't know ow if I would be eating the fish after that came out of its gut. Looks like a intestinal worm .
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Pete F
Posts: 310
Date Joined: 07/01/18
It seems to have eyes, more
It seems to have eyes, more like an eel.
Cheers
Glenn Moore
Posts: 228
Date Joined: 13/02/12
snake eel
It is a snake eel (Family Ophichthidae). The eel is eaten alive by the snapper which then burrows its way out of the gut into the gut cavity where it eventually suffocates. First reported in the 1930s, it is not really a true parasite-host relationship because the eel was presumably deliberately eaten. Known across a range of fish families and species, but all are medium sized reef predators. It’s the first I know from a Pink Snapper - nice one!
There was a cool paper in 2020 if you want to get sciencey - here.
Cheers,
Glenn
Glenn Moore
Curator of Fishes
Western Australian Museum
twitter @WestOzFish
emu472
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Date Joined: 15/01/09
Wow
That is unreal
sunshine
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Date Joined: 03/03/09
Brilliant Glenn
Always so informative ....never stop learning despite my age
Billcollector
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Date Joined: 16/05/09
I was thinking the same.
I was thinking the same. well done.