The AFU and Urban Legend Archive Animals urinophilic candiru Select a topic - - - - - - - - Home Searches AFU FAQ - - - - - - - - AFU Animals Books Celebrities Classic Collegiate Death Disney Drugs Food GIF Language Legal Medical Misc Movies Politics Products Religion Science Sex Songs TV - - - - - - - - Other sites

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: churchr@oak.cats.ohiou.edu (Bob Church)
Subject: Candiru article (long)
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 07:03:38 GMT

I'm not sure that the following excerpts should change the AFU classification of Tb for candiru lodging in the urethra, but it's interesting reading. The mention of a Naval surgeon might offer a lead. If anyone has access to Naval medical journals we might be able to get something solid.

Bob Church

from the March 1973 article of Urology, pages 265-267

Candiru: Urinophilic Catfish
Its Gift to Urology

John R. Herman, M.D.
New York, New York

In the early 1900s many strange and florid tales arose in that rich source of extravaganzas, the Amazon River Basin. One of the strangest was the rumor of the existence of a fish that was urinophilic and could swim up the urethra or into the vagina of the unwary native who urinated while bathing in the Amazon. It was said that this fish, known as candiru, was long, thin, and capable of forcing its way into the body's passage-ways following the trail of urine. Once inside it would eat away the mucous membranes and tissues until hemorrhage would kill it or the host. It was also said that even if one caught the fish by the tail, once in the urethra it could not be pulled out because it would spread itself like an umbrella. Indeed, rumors had it that penectomy was preferred to the misery and pain associated with leaving the fish in the urethra! Warthin refers to Professor C.H. Eigenmann who first told him that natives of the Amazon wore coconut shells over their "organs" to prevent this parasite from entering their bodies.

(snip)

In 1836 Poeppig, after a long journey through the country, wrote of a plant known as the Xagua.

The fresh juice of Xagua is rightfully claimed to be the surest means of killing and getting rid of these two-inch long little fishes which slip into the outer opening of the bodies of careless bathers and bring about the most dreadful accidents.

Gudger, of the American Museum of Natural History, heard of these stories and became interested in learning the truth about the candiru. Was it urinophilic, was it a vertebrate parasite of man, and could it really swim up he urethra?
After studying many reports, mostly second-hand but also that from an occasional eye-witness, Gudger became certain that there was indeed a fish called candiru that was a blood sucker. This fish or group of fishes are nuisances and are either ecto- or endoparasites of fishes, beasts, or man. He classified them as members of the family Pygidiidae, Vandellia cirrhosa. Modern ichthyologists classify them as Trichomycteridae. The candiru is scaleless and slimy, having a torpedo-like body measuring from 5 to 8 cm. in length and 4 to 6 mm. in diameter (comparable to no. 12 French catheter) It has large firm opercula (gill covers) with bony spinous processes, rasping premaxillary "cat-like" teeth, and a suctorial mouth. Although he found proof that this fish was attracted by the body secretions of man, especially flesh and blood, he was unable to prove urinophilia. He wrote that "evidence as set forth seems strongly to indicate that the Candirus are tropic to urine."

Use of "Cod Pieces"

Gudger evaluated reports of penetration of the human urethra, including those of a U.S. Naval surgeon who stated that he had performed surgical procedures on three such patients, doing a suprapubic cystostomy on one to remove the fish. He concluded that the candiru does penetrate the human urethra, offering further circumstantial evidence, such as the various "cod pieces" or penis protectors worn by the men when they entered the infested water of the Amazon. The women also wore pudendal covers for this purpose.

(snip)

In 1941 Vinton and Stickler(6) wrote that "there is no doubt that the creatures actually exist." These fishes are known by the "collective name carnero." The authors quote from a letter by Dr. H.H. Rusby, a pharmacognosist, "as to the attacks of carnero on men and women, the records are established. Feather-bed explorers and theoretical researchers have disputed the facts, but the evidence is abundant and confirmed." Their article also gives first-hand accounts of the fish. The authors also seem to feel that reported losses of penes are more likely due to piranha than to surgical intervention for removal of candiru.

Treatment
Most important to urologists as well as to the unhappy victims is obtaining relief after an attack. Because the fish spreads its gill covers in trying to get oxygen, the sharp spinous processes on the ends of the opercula engage the urethral wall making extraction from the urethra almost impossible or at least most traumatic. The green fruit of the jagua tree, Genipa americana L., is thought to be the only satisfactory remedy. Picked when green the juice of the fruit is drunk as a tea to drive out the fish.

(snip)

(discussion about using buitach for dissolving kidney stones, rather than the bones of candiru)

The buitach apple tissue contains large quantities of apparently usable citric acid, thus calcium is dissolved. Amazonians appear to have been aware of this long before the era of modern medicine, providing another example of a folk-remedy having a valid scientific basis.