As Cecil’s original article and some of the links mention, normally the candiru is a parasite on the gills of other fish. Swimming up a mammalian urethra is clearly maladaptive, since it invariably leads to death for the candiru. The question is why they do it.
As Atreyu’s second link mentions, one reason could be that the candiru mistakes a urine stream for the current of water exiting the gills. One additional aspect that hasn’t been mentioned yet is that fish excrete urea through the gills as well as via the kidneys. Quite likely a urea-laden current signals to the candiru that a potential cozy home lies just upstream.
Dr. Petry mentioned in his presentation that they had tested a number of different substances, most notably the urine Cecil mentions, and found nothing that attracted the candiru.
[/quote]
I understand that the fish was, uh, buried quite deeply, too. Just something else fun to consider…
Yeah, I saw that Cecil mentioned the researchers said the candiru wasn’t attracted to urine. I’m not sure I believe it without hearing more about what Petry’s research design was. Surely the fish must be receiving some stimulus to make it think a urethra is actually a gill opening. Conceivably the stream of urea-laced water has to be moving in order to for the fish to be fooled. If Petry just offered it a choice of stationary urine-dosed water it might not have been attracted.
I’m skeptical, particularly of the gentleman’s story. Think about it–[ul][li]the fish jumps several inches out of the water with perfect aim, heading directly towards the urethra,[/li][li]it noses in the very small opening (what, maybe 0.5" by 0.1" when urinating, being generous?)[/li][li]it is somehow able to worm its way in deeper (initially with only a small part of its head in the urethra)[/li][li]most unlikely of all, the guy just stands there while a fish is crawling up his johnson?[/ul][/li]
Even assuming it does make the leap, miraculously finds the urethra, gets a nose in and starts climbing up, I don’t know that I’d try to grab the fish, but I sure as hell would put a death grip on the shaft.
And can’t they do a DNA test on the remains of the fish?
Playing devil’s advocate, I’m not doubting that the operation did take place, and they did find a fish in the guy’s scrotum. So what is more unbelievable–that the fish found its own way into the guy’s penis, or that he’s disturbed enough to shove a fish up there?
i am reminded back to my early teenage years when, for some reason, i swallowed a couple of goldfish on a dare. looking back, i realize that the fish could have expanded it’s gills (which one did in my experience, but only slightly) and suffocated me, as i have read in several news articles since. now if that had happened, do you think the smartest thing to do would be to grab my throat? i believe the candiru situation is similar, in that it would just worsen the situation and dig his gills into the walls of the urethra. if you ask me, this guy was kind of lucky having it go all the way into his scrotum, because if it got stuck in his urethra, he most likely wouldn’t have a johnson at all.
Which event? If you mean the assertion that the fish was in this man’s urethra, I’d point out that there are certainly pictures, and supposedly a video tape, of the removal operation. If you mean the assertion of just how the fish got there in the first place, I’ll admit that the statement “I was just peeing in the river and the fish jumped into my willy,” sounds suspiciously like “I was just gardening in the nude and I fell on a carrot and it wedged itself in my ass.” Which I think is johnson’s point.
{Scene: The dark underground headquarters of a particularly we-heeled criminal organization. The floors are nevertheless carpeted, and halogen lights bank off the volcanic-rock walls. A large bald man sits in a chair, stroking a white cat.)
“So, Mr. Bond. We have you at last.”
(Scene of man tied up, standing, immersed to his waist n river water. He is nude, but we can’t see anything below the water because of the turbidity of the water.)
"Look in this jar I am holding. This is the candiru, a unique fish only found here, in the Amazon jungle. It has the disagreeable habit of swimming up the uretha when the victim urinates.
"I think you are beginning to regret all those martinis, stirred not shaken, are you not?
“Goodbye, Mr. Bond. Your days as a great lover are numbered. It is only a matter of time, but I fear I cannot wait. My rocketplane awaits, and the timers have to be set on the bombs.”
(Bald man leaves and music rises. But unknown to the bald man…)
But let’s look at this the other way. Which is more likely, I was pissing in the Amazon and this fish swum up my willie, or I was in the Amazon and I managed to catch this fish which is quite narrow and thus difficult to net and then put it in a bowl, urinated on it and it swum up my willie, or I was in the Amazon and I managed to catch this fish which is quite narrow and thus difficult to net and then put it in a bowl and attempted to stimulate my urethra when things got out of hand and into my cock? The only likely embellishment that i cn see would be that he was into the river up to his waist naked and urinating rather than having his willy above the waterline.
Johnson, Mjollnir, Gryphil: I don’t see why you guys are so skeptical. Think about it: why was the dude standing in the Amazon, a river that is the haunt of piranahas, anacondas, caymans, other slithery, flesh-eathing varmints and fresh-water sharks for all I know?
I bet he was drunk or smashed on some jungle berry. That’s why he entered the water to piss and that’s a contributing factor to his inability to catch the fish.
Always remember what J.B.S. Haldane said: The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
Well, lee, in a world in which men get themselves off by laying their penis on belts of large machinery, sending testicles flying around the room, I don’t think it’s impossible that option C is out of the question (though it may be doubtful, as I noted above). After all…
And besides, how come we never hear of this happening to women? Always men? I should think it’d be much much easier for a candiru to lodge itself inside a woman than a man…
I must join the skeptics here. And to add to Johnsons’ list;
The fish jumps out of the water, against a current of urine and manages to wedge itself into the urethra and continue on before the guy can do anything about it.
COME ON!
Has anyone investigated the possibility of some kind of amazonian virility ritual? Or maybe this is the story they tell the little amazonian boys to keep them from peeing in the river.
I don’t doubt the Doctor removed the fish, but I have serious doubts about how it got there. You can tell a Doctor anything about how an injury occurred, and it’ll get into his report, true or not.
Thanks jon, but you’re correct, that is hardly a unique or reliable site. But if you look at the diagram accompanying the acticle, it has a copyright from http://www.medscape.com.
I encourage everyone to check out the article on that site entitled “A Whopper of a Fish Story” by:
Dr. Lutwick is Director of the Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Internal Medicine, at Maimonides Medical
Center, and Professor of Clinical Medicine at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn. Dr.Chapnick is Hospital Epidemiologist at Maimonides Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Medicine at SUNY
Health Science Center.
It appears to be a legit medical article (except for the title) about the candiru, although it offers no proof of actual “attacks”. One relevant item it does offer the following quote;
“There is no truth to the claim that the fish can launch itself out of the water by ascending a descending urinary stream. Candirú certainly seem to be attracted to blood, making the menstruating female a common victim.”
Again, there is no evidence given to support these claims. There are also three articles given as additional suggested reading. If I had more time to waste today, I’d follow up with them.
People, men in particular it seems, have a fascination with their orifices. Go to any big-city emergancy room and ask around. They probably have a big cardboard box full of stuff that they’ve extracted from various openings.
People, crazy people in particular, have a fascination with legends. There have been more than one myth that has found its way to reality from obsessive personalities.
But would a man go so far as to intentionally insert a fish into his penis? Especially if the legend has it that it will cause great distress? And the spines would almost certainly provide ample warning to any sane human being?
Again, drop by a big-city E.R. and ask around. There’s got to be a web site out there with pictures of objects that have been swallowed, inhaled, and stuffed inside this fragile bag of flesh we inhabit … but right now I don’t have the stomach to look for it.
BTW, I must admit that this whole subject miffs me a little, as I posted a question about this eight months before the original column ran. But did I get any credit for the question? Nooooooo. . . .