Giant isopods

Giant isopods, which live in the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, can grow up to 45 cm long. Although generalist scavengers, these isopods are mostly carnivorous and feed on dead whales, fish, and squid; they may also be active predators of slow-moving prey such as sea cucumbers, sponges, radiolarians, nematodes and other zoobenthos, and perhaps even live fish. They are known to attack trawl catches. The young isopods emerge from the marsupium as miniatures of the adults, known as manca. This is not a larval stage: the manca are fully developed, lacking only the last pair of pereopods.