The Real Amazonian Vampire Fish

If anyone has seen movies such as Anaconda, The Rundown or any number of movies about the Amazon, this fish just might be mentioned. It is usualy described rather vividly as a parasitic fish that swims into the anus or urethra of a subject and then attaches to the interior wall with a spike and continuiously draws blood.

Although you probably thought it was just B.S, it 'aint.



This is a fish called Vandellia cirrhosia, A.K.A the Candiru, A.K.A the Vampire Fish of The Amazon. And it really does do the things described in the movies. It was first described doing such acts by the natives who often bathed or went to the bathroom in their native rivers.



The link explains more in detail. But no doubt, this is definately a real fish, and I was really suprised to learn this.

Also, during the early years of the twentieth century, several scientists used the Candiru as a study example for possible cures for everything from STD's to testicular cancers, but such amazonian cures were proven to not be useful for anything other removal of this parasite.

Be careful swimming without pants in the Amazon...

The fish by nature is a parasite to fish gills, though.

But with way, I would never go bare in the Amazon, never know what I'll catch........ And swimming? Hail no!
Even with pants. That fish is small and I doubt it cannot easily pass pants.... I would wear a condom, but there is nothing for behind....

Femidom? Cork?

That fish is scary but there are also piranas...

Ouch...

Cool fish but yuk! I wonder how they got the photo though, some1 must have risk his "thing"...

sumdud said:

The fish by nature is a parasite to fish gills, though.

But with way, I would never go bare in the Amazon, never know what I'll catch........ And swimming? Hail no!
Even with pants. That fish is small and I doubt it cannot easily pass pants.... I would wear a condom, but there is nothing for behind....

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I have some questions: If the fish gets into human organ... let's say pennis. Wiki says if the fish gets into human's pennis, it will then be impossible to be removed unless with an operation. Does the fish live without water? How long can it live? Will it propagate inside human body?

Well, normaly the fish resides inside of the gills of a larger fish and it gets it's water that way, but inside of a human penis? Most of said previous attacks on said organ are due to an atraction to urea, so it was never really evolutionary designed to remain inside of the human penis. Probably, what happens is that once inside the urethra, the fish consumes blood, then dies. However, it is possible that the dead fish remains inside of the urinary tract and eventualy causes infections and god knows what. It is still very possible that the fish will remain inside and attached although it is dead.

Note: I have said the word 'penis' more times than I ever expected I would have on this forum in the above paragraph. I feel this is worthy of note. :rofl:

I remember on the Discovery Channel, that piranhas doesn't attack a human being, unless he's bleeding or basically open flesh out... but yeah here...

Piranhas generally pose little threat to humans, and attacks on humans are extremely rare. Natives frequently swim in piranha infested water without attacks or scratches. However, it is not recommended to swim where piranha live in drought season because of increased aggressiveness caused by food scarcity and increased tendency to form large schools. Piranha fish also have the same sensory system that enables sharks to detect blood in minuscule amounts, so it is believed that swimming with an open cut may enhance the chance of an attack.

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By the way, it is legal to own a Piranna, but one requires a liscence for owning dangerous exotic animals. And Piranna are generaly speaking docile animals, unless you vibrate too much in the water or have an open bleeding wound. In fact, most incidents of Piranna attacks were either in boating accidents, or during attacks on other animals (A farmer leaping in to save his cow would also get munched on).

fyi


i used to work in an aquarium when i was in my teens, that is where i discovered that Piranna's were harmless. they dont have an agressive instinct, and there are many more fish that you would worry about before the Piranna.

if i remember correctly, there was something called a tiger fish and the red oscar, that would attack anything that moved, wither it was hungry or not. we used to dip a finger into the tank to see how quick they would go for it, and damn they were quick lol.

buy maybe Piranna's just loose their agressiveness in captivity

Tiger fish? I know that Tiger Sharks are literally mind-less when it comes to food (Attacks humans no matter what, even the Great White has better manners...) But pardon me, what's a tiger fish?

What about the world's smallest fish, which lives in Indonesia? (Don't know its name) The vampire fish may swim up your penis by accident, but this fish here literally loves urea digging! The reason it does so is to release its egg. Now I got all this from my former science teacher, he might be wrong on some parts, but this is just disturbing. (Oh, and it has spikes tooif I rememer correctly.)