Great story..... I hadn't seen it nor was I aware of that cool site before today. Thank you. Btw, did you happen to follow the links to the one about the candiru?
Ouch!
Dear Reader:
Much as it may sound like an old scoutmaster's tale, the parasitic fish you refer to does exist. Actual close encounters with the candiru (Vandellia cirrhosa) must be fairly rare, judging from the dearth of medical literature on it, but it's still high up on my personal list of Scary Things to Avoid.
The candiru is a member of the catfish family and can be found in lakes and streams of the Amazon region. It's tiny – only about an inch long – and, according to the Enyclopedia Britannica, "has been known to enter the urethras of bathers and swimming animals." That's hardly the worst of it.
"Once in the passage," the Britannica continues, "it erects the short spines on its gill covers and may thereby cause inflammation, hemorrhage, and even death to the victim." And the little bugger can only be removed by surgery.
Why, you ask, would a fish want to swim up there in the first place? Audubon magazine explains:
"Candirus primarily set up house inside larger fish, where they feast on the host's blood. They are attracted to nitrogen, which usually leads them to a gill chamber, but apparently they can't distinguish between one nitrogen-emitting orifice and another: They have been known to follow a stream of urine right to its source."
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