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Back as a child, they were a hoot to put down your friends' shirts... but seeing them, generally positioned on a host fish in the wild, occasionally on one in captivity is no laughing matter. Isopods we encounter in the garden and not-so commonly in shallow marine environments are typically gray, scale-like... with "all the same feet" (iso-pods)... but the group is amongst the most diverse in the crustacea, with worm-like forms, some highly ornamented, sometimes with ghastly hook-like devices for holding on to food items... Most are small and inconspicuous, but you have likely seen the very deepwater Bathynomus species on television... these are amongst the largest crustaceans, exceeding a sixteen inches in length. Not all are parasitic... most are scavengers of sorts, a few eat algae, others carrion.
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