News On Japan

Giant undersea bug in Toba Aquarium poops for first time in two years

Jun 11, 2020 (soranews24.com) - Apparently, eating a shark’s face alive will bind you right up.

A momentous event took place in Toba Aquarium on 26 May, when the keeper of the facility’s five giant isopods discovered fecal matter in their tank. This would be the first time since April of 2018 that even a trace of poop had been found.

Giant isopods are relatives of those bugs kids around the world play with by poking with a stick so that they curl up into a ball. Pill-bug, potato-bug, roly-poly, or doodle bug are among these things’ many common names, and a fun fact about them is that they are among the very few crustaceans that live on land.

Deep in the ocean, it’s a whole other story. The giant isopods, can grow to about half a meter and would likely not be as fun to poke with a stick. In fact, here’s a famous video from a few years ago showing one eating the face off a shark.

For the most part, they tend to be pretty low-key creatures though, and no one knows this as well as Toba Aquarium who, since 2007, have been trying to understand as much about these largely unknown animals and improve methods of caring for them.

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