Fear of Peeing

[marpacifica]

Oh, ow. I did not need to read this. Ow. And I don't even have a penis.

I read a report that village women washing clothes at the river are also susceptible to attacks by the catfish -- equal opportunity fish attacker. Ouch.

 

[Boomer7]

Is this species classified as the bobbit fish?

Very funny..... I never saw it coming

 

[Scubakevdm]

Are they available in the U.S? I'd like to order some for my pool.

 

[caveseeker7]

No, I wasn't reffering to the bites.

The fish, which zero in on urine streams in the water, have struck terror among villagers along the Sepik River, in north-western PNG.

Isn't that supposed to be Septic River?

 

[GrierHPharmD]

In an effort to stave off ignornance, I thought I'd share these two Cecil Adams columns that discuss the little Amazon fish. Be sure to check out the photos link in the second one.

Hope they can't chew through neoprene...

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000519.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010907.html

 

[JustAddWater]

I don't know if it's a myth (or an attempt to keep people from urinating in rental wetsuits), but I've heard that urine also attracts sharks. Anyone in the know, know?

 

[ShakaZulu]

I don't know if it's a myth (or an attempt to keep people from urinating in rental wetsuits), but I've heard that urine also attracts sharks. Anyone in the know, know?

Never found a diver who survived the attack, so I can't tell.........

 

[Dive-aholic]

Still not sure if it's true, but here are a couple of articles:

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/hanchette45.html

http://www.urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa071900a.htm

 

[baltimoron]

:icon10: :wtf:

Gee, Thanks guys.... another thing to my Nightmare list.... OWWWWWW!!! NEVER going back to the Amazon.... NEVER peeing in a river....

gotta tell this to my old bio teacher... he'll enjoy this.

:azvatar: <===== AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

 

[aquaticaggie]

The fish you speak of, not the genital eater but the other, is known as the Candiru. It is a parasitic fish that lives in the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers of South America. Mostly known to prey on other fish it sometimes goes after humans. Normally it follows the warmth of water exiting the gills of other fish (or so I believe) where it attaches its self to the gills to draw blood. Sometimes it confuses a human urine trail with its intended prey. This is the grusome part, then there are two schools of thought on entry of this little fellow. The first it that it squirms right up the urethra and lodges its self there. The other which seems to be the most accuarate is that it burrows in through the anus and lodges its self in the urinary tract. Either way it gets in there it doen't want to come out this is because of the spines around its gills that dig into the sides of you know where making extraction difficult. Amputation is easiest or there are herbal remidies made by native to the region that are said to disolve the critter. Anywho the fish is real but only a problem if you like to dive these rivers. But ladies, the little guy goes after you too so look out.

You can find tons of information of ths fish on the web by searching Candiru, but there is a lot of folk lure about this little fishy too.