If so: how do they handle those parasites that consume their tongues without dying from the pain? They have no appendages, fingers, or other means to remove the parasite so how to they not just succumb from the excruciating pain? (Also, how does that bug parasite thing then survive in their mouth?)
Lots of confusion here!
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We don’t really know. Pain is a difficult thing to measure. Especially in something you have no ability to communicate with. The general consensus is yes, probably, but not in the same way that we do.
The consensus is yes, but there’s still some debate as o whether or not the experience of pain in fish is the same experience that we have.” Pain is not just a negative stimulus, but it’s also an emotional response to that stimulus. Fish can certainly feel and react to negative stimuli – we can observe that behavior and they react negatively to things that damage their bodies, avoid things that could damage their bodies, and engage in behaviors that would ease physical discomfort, and they certainly have the requesite parts of their nervous systems that would enable them to feel physically unpleasant sensations. On the other hand, their brains are much simpler than those of higher vertebrates like mammals, so it’s unclear if they can experience the emotional aspect of “suffering” in a way that would be familiar to us – some scientists say yes, some say no, and some aren’t sure.
The science is a little shaky on what exactly it means to ‘feel pain’ and precisely how sophisticated of a brain it requires, but it’s also important to note that even humans can withstand a tremendous amount of pain without dying. If one of those tongue eating parasites somehow successfully infested a human, it would suck for the human but it wouldn’t kill them.
It’s an interesting question because pain is so subjective that we can’t even really scientifically demonstrate that people actually feel pain.
We’re pretty sure that people feel pain. Looking at the structures that we think enable people to feel pain we think it’s possible that fish feel pain.
However, in people it does appear that most pain is caused by the emotional experience of pain. It appears less likely that a fish could experience this. If this is true then a fish is probably not really bothered emotionally by a parasite and so any pain it may experience may be a lot less than if it happened to a person or another more highly intelligent animal.
So, the answer is, we don’t know.
nothing dies from pain. Pain is how our brains interpret negative stimuli, and (in a sense) doesn’t exist as a concrete entity, but only as an experience in our minds. That’s why when we’re put under anaesthesia for surgeries we don’t feel anything while doctors do otherwise extremely painful things to our body.
Since fish have nervous systems like us we can show that they respond to negative stimuli like we do. But it’s not entirely possible to know if fish brains interpret those signals the same way human brains do since we can’t communicate with them like we do with each other.
Historically people assumed (even doctors, researchers, or “experts”) that fish or animals don’t feel pain (same with human babies!) since they are more “simple” than talking adult human beings who can express themselves, that simpler creatures are just “reacting” out of biological programming. But modern research shows that even simpler creatures like crustaceans and fish can experience negative events, remember for a long time, and modify their behaviour accordingly which hints at them having an internal mind that makes them more than just simple little robots.
animals (including people) are born with the incredible drive to live, even with pain, even through excruciating trauma. We, as modern humans, live an incredibly comfortable lifestyle where we sometimes forget how harsh and painful life can be, and how strong the instinct for survival is.
the bug parasite eats and becomes the replacement for the fish’s tongue, and eats a portion of whatever the fish eats to continue living. Once you lose a tongue I suspect that it stops hurting after a while and you get used to it.
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