Swimming Whiskery Tongues

I always thought that catfish looked a little silly with their moustaches and whiskers. But then again, it was by their whiskers and moustaches that I recognized them anyway. So I should say they look 'distinguised'. Yeah.



Ok, when I say the word tastebud, which body part automatically pops into your head? The tongue, of course. But hey, believe or not, the catfish has tastebuds all over its body! There are tastebuds on their fins, back, belly, sides, and even on their tail. It's like a huge, swimming tongue with whiskers:
















Ok ok, I confess, that's actually a cow's tongue, with drawn whiskers and fins and all. I was just trying ellaborate a point.

The highest concentration of tastebuds found outside the mouth, are just below the whiskers. Apparently there are many volcanos near the area, if looked under a microscope. And each, mini volcano is a tastebud. Pretty cool eh?

Anyway, the tastebuds on the body do serve a function. They help detect food by detecting chemicals, then the fish will be able to locate it by using it's whiskers as little "feelers", before the tastebuds in the mouth examine it to see whether the food's tasty or not.

On the estimate, a 6 inched catfish has about 6 million tastebuds on the average. Man, imagine those Mekong Catfish!















I'm guessing what... Gazillions of trillions of zillions?! And man, you won't need a microscope to check out the volcanic tastebuds. Heh.

*pooh!* What's that smell?

And you thought herring were common fish-and-chips fish?? Think again! They're extremely special creatures- they communicate by farting-a study suggests!

Marine biologists have known that herrings have excellent hearing, but they never knew what it was used for. And then they discovered that the fish actually make small, high-frequency noises at night, by releasing air from their anuses!

Wheeeheeee... Imagine, if we communicated like that: *prupp pruup pruuuuuuup* *I love you*

Really, amazing fish. In fact, I know some one who would make a very socialble herring. ;-)

Leeches

Leeches.

Say that word aloud and you get the idea of a leech.

L-E-E-C-H. What pops into your head? A blood-sucking, slimy, dancing, drunk, black worm, correct?

Exactly what it is.


Leeches are segmented worms or anelids, cousins of the earthworms. The wonderful part about leeches is they have suckers at both ends. They are sanguivorous, which means they feed on blood of other animals.

A leech detects its prey by sensing movement and light. To imagine the way it moves, just think of a flexible tube with two plumber suckers at each end, dancing like a slinky down the stairs.


















The usual jungle leeches you find on rainy days in Malaysian forests (the jawless leeches or Rhyncobdellida) don't have jaws to bite, instead, they have this needle-like protusion called a proboscis (like butterflies for nectar), which they inject into one of our skin pores, and happily begin to drink. They inject an anti-coagulant hirudin, which floods the wounded pore, helping the leech to relax and allow the blood to be ingested.

According to www.austmus.gov.au/factsheet/leeches :
There may also be a delayed irritation and itching after a bite. There appears to be no support for the theory that mouthparts left behind after forced removal of the leech causes this reaction. Can leeches transmit disease? There is no evidence to suggest that they do.

Leeches have been known over the centuries to be used for medical purposes. In fact, pharmacies nowadays supply leeches to hospitals and clinics! They put leeches on the body part which has been infected, and in a very literal sense, the leech will suck out all the bad blood.

Shown here below is the process of decompression for a woman who had forearm hematoma. And which the leeches helped return her arm to its normal state, all pink and flexible.