Re: NANFA-- Re: lamprey attack-Pics

Michael Sandel (kwksand_at_yahoo.com)
Sat, 21 Feb 2004 21:53:10 -0800 (PST)

I forget which Petromyzon species this was, I can find out though. We worked the KY river last summer, he had no qualms about attaching to us. He was electroshocked, contained in a stainless tub, and obviously stressed, but this does demonstrate that Petro's are capable of attaching to humans. I was smiling in the picture, but not after many failed attempts at removing him. His teeth are sharp! but he was obviously not interested in feeding at this time, maybe defense mech...Hope these files aren't too big, not familiar with the compressing stuff.
Michael Sandel

Dave Neely <rheopresbe_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
Chris,

Southern Hemisphere lampreys don't behave like most of the North American
species. Adults of both of the two parasitic Australian lampreys (Geotria
australis and Mordacia mordax) use the denticles on the tongue to shear off
chunks of flesh, and don't feed just on fluids like Petromyzon,
Ichthyomyzon, etc. Geotria is supposedly almost exclusively a flesh-feeder.
They're fast, too. My boss collected some last year, and in the process of
taking some pictures of a large adult, it attached to his thumb and took a
large chunk of tissue out of it (I wish somebody would have gotten video of
this...)!

cheers,
Dave

--
St. Louis, MO

[demime 0.99d.1x removed an attachment of type image/pjpeg which had a name of DSC00788.jpg]

[demime 0.99d.1x removed an attachment of type image/pjpeg which had a name of DSC00791.jpg]

[demime 0.99d.1x removed an attachment of type image/pjpeg which had a name of DSC00792.jpg] /----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org