Fish with "eyelashes"

I shot this photo near Alor Indonesia. I think the fish is a Canthigaster valentini. But I have no idea what the "eyelash" thingies are. Some of the fish had them, some only had one and others didn't have them.

More on the fish can be found at http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/summary/Spec...ary.php?id=6544

Any idea of what they are would be greatly appreciated.

Ow, that's got to hurt! I'm sure Leslie will have something to say, but to me they look like a kind of parasitic copepod found on other fish like anchovies, etc. I think the long streamers are the gills or the reproductive organs.

Cheers

James

Copepod would be my guess as well.

here is a good link with lots to read about different types crustacion parasites.

You guys are right. Parasitic copepods; the trailing strings are egg sacs. That's a great link William - thanks for putting it up.

Thanks for the great information. The dive guide tried to tell me some BS story that they were false eyes- like some of the spots on fish-- but that didn't make much sense to me, being that they were right next to the eyes-- I knew I could figure out what it was though, with a post to Wetpixel. Thanks again.

Mike

Hi bondo, id love to do a blog post on this. If you are interested in me featuring your images on Earthtouchnews dot com please shoot me an email skeartes at earthtouchsa dot com