Candiru catfish

[DJ-don]

im doing a school project right now on parasites and such and i decided to do the candiru and after much research i heard whe n a mammal's penis is in the water and it is urinating, i heard the candiru would swim up the penis! but after looking at the size of the average candiru, doesn't it seem big to swim up a mammals penis? i mean (not to be inappropriate) a male mammal's penis must be pretty big while pissing for candiru to swim up his penis

so is it true it can swim up a male mammals penis? and also is it vice versa for females too?

[Marc van Arc]

Read this:

Vandellia cirrhosa

[Silurus]

This book would be very helpful for your research. I suggest that you try to get a hold of a copy at your nearest library.

[Suckermouth]

There's a bit of info on the Wikipedia candiru page, though. It's not good practice to cite Wikipedia itself for school reports, but Wikipedia cites other links that would be a good idea to check out for more information. Some of that information is stuff I put up myself.

For the most part, it is just about impossible for a candiru to swim up the stream of urine, and it's much more likely if the person's lower half is submerged while urinating.

Also, it's important to note that "candiru" is a common name which is applied variably, either to be as specific to only include Vandellia cirrhosa to including all members of the subfamilies Vandelliinae and Stegophilinae. Though the entire family "Trichomycteridae" (to which the candiru species belong) is commonly known as the "parasitic catfishes", only those two subfamilies are parasitic.

Here is a review of the book linked above that you should check out. I would recommend you check out the book itself, though.

[Shane]

Milton,
Thanks for that link. I had not seen that review. Glad to see the reviewer question the credibility of the single "confirmed" case of a trichomycterid entering a human.
I had all the proof I needed after asking about Candiru for years in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Every time I asked about Candiru entering a human body the reply was hysterical laughter with a comment like, "Where do you crazy white people come up with this crap!"
-Shane

[DJ-don]

just today i saw a documentary and it was called bite me. it showed all the parasitic animals and insects of South america and it showed a small part about Candiru and they actually showed a candiru being removed from a mans penis. it was very disgusting at all and now im not sure what to believe now

[Shane]

I am not saying that a candiru sp never accidentally entered a human. After all, the rumor had to start somewhere. However it is a BIG jump from an animal accidentally making a wrong turn to calling that animal a parasite to mankind. The key difference between a parasite and a predator is that a parasite lives with its host. If this fish is a parasite where are the 1,000s of people walking around with candiru in their body, and oh yeah, how are these fish surviving out of water? The entire thing is silly.
-Shane

[DJ-don]

I am not saying that a candiru sp never accidentally entered a human. After all, the rumor had to start somewhere. However it is a BIG jump from an animal accidentally making a wrong turn to calling that animal a parasite to mankind. The key difference between a parasite and a predator is that a parasite lives with its host. If this fish is a parasite where are the 1,000s of people walking around with candiru in their body, and oh yeah, how are these fish surviving out of water? The entire thing is silly.
-Shane

oh okay! thanks for all the help shane and thanx for the book silurus!

[Proteus]

this was just on an espiode of "monster fish" on animal planet channel show the interview on a doctor's account that removed the candiru from a a guy's penis and interviewed the guy that endured the experience.

EH.


I would say nothings impossible in today's time and age.