On the Internet you can find the story that in the waters of the Amazon, a fish allegedly lives, which can climb into the body of a careless swimsman through the urinary tract. We decided to check how reliable this bike is.

About a dangerous Amazon fish regularly write Bloggers, Media, resources About animals, Portals With interesting facts, users entertainment sites And services questions and answers. The statement that it is able to climb into the human body through the urinary tract, Mentioned Even in the authoritative Encyclopedia Britannica. In some sources Emphashesthat the inhabitants of the areas where this fish lives, swim only in tightly adjacent swimming trunks.

Such insidious behavior is attributed to conventional vandelli - small freshwater fish From a somo -shaped detachment, also known as Kandira. Representatives of this species usually grow to 4-8 cm in length (but can reach 20 cm), have a translucent elongated body and characteristic outgrowths in the area of gill slit. The presence of these spikes Determined The parasitic way of life: Candipar swims under the gill covers of larger fish, is fixed there with the help of these outgrowths, which simultaneously break the vessels of the victim gills, and feeds on her blood. It is believed that potential hosts parasite Finds By the content of ammonia in the water, which is released during breathing. The same substance is contained in human urine. Therefore, some are afraid that its smell can attract Candisa, and she will be taken into the urethra, vagina or anus.

On the attacks of this fish on people in their books and reports They told Even European travelers, naturalists, doctors and missionaries who visited the Amazon in the 19th century. In 1930, American biologist Eugene Willis Gadger Published In the "American Journal of Surgery" an article generalizing previously described cases. The forerunners of the scientist, citing the Amazon fishermen, told, in particular, about individuals who jumped out of the water and rose into the human body along a stream of urine (in the 19th century, even the candida Offered Call Urinophilus Diabolicus - “Devil's Urine”, lat.). Some victims allegedly had to remove the penis because of the fish stuck in the urethra. To prevent accidents, local residents, as a gadier indicates with reference to their predecessors, either tied the stretched foreskin with a lace so that it closed the urethra, or used special covers for the penis and vagina. At the same time, the biologist drew attention to the fact that in previously described cases, patients with an amputated member did not live in the habitat of Candira, and from this concluded that, probably, another fish (for example, piranha) caused injuries.

A similar work 80 years later was carried out by Irmgard Bauer, a researcher from the University of Australian James Cook. Having studied the evidence of travelers, she Came To the conclusion that the authors did not see the attacks of the candir themselves, but only retold stories from the words of guides and/or local residents. On the one hand, they could embellish the situation, on the other hand, translation errors were possible. Bauer also emphasizes that getting into the urethra, rising along the stream of urine, the laws of physics will interfere with the fish. Although in the 19th century there were more than a dozen cases of attack, in modern times, the researcher emphasizes, such injuries have not been recorded - with the only exception.

In 1997, a man named Silvio Barbossa turned to one of the Brazilian hospitals. According to the patient, when he urinated, standing in the water, Kandira attacked him - the fish jumped out of the water, rose along the stream of urine and climbed the unfortunate into the urethra. Local Dr. Anoar Samad surgically extracted the parasite and retained it in formalin. This case was interested in American biologist Stephen Spott, who went to Brazil and Disassembled That incident. In particular, the researcher studied the operational protocol, other documents related to that case and the preserved body to Kandira. Spott discovered a number of serious inconsistencies:

-Firstly, the patient claimed that the fish jumped out of the water and rose along the stream of urine, although this contradicts the laws of physics;

-Secondly, the diameter of the head of the sample preserved in formalin was 11.5 mm, while the diameter of the urethra in men usually located within 5–7 mm (and it is not clear how the fish bounced and moving against a stream of urine could spread the urethra to climb inside);

-Thirdly, how Showed Experiments conducted after the alleged attack, but before the study of Spott, Kandira does not react to the smell of ammonia, so human urine could not become a bait;

-Fourth, although in the report on the operation the Brazilian urologist indicated that in order to extract fish from the urethra of the patient, he had to remove the outgrowth-shirts from the fish, they were in place in the formalin of the sample.

By assessment Spotta, the probability of being attacked by Kandira during urination in water, which teeming with these fish, is likely that lightning will hit a person when he will eat a shark. However, despite these inconsistencies, the researcher does not comment on the veracity of the story he studied.

A few years later, Barbossa and Samad starred in a video in which they told their version of the attack of Kandir, and also described the process of its extraction. The shooting of the original operation was not carried out, the corresponding fragments of the narrative accompanied the video application of endoscopic technology.

There are no other modern evidence of Kandir attack on a person. In 2021, Brazilian scientists Described A new species, whose representatives are much larger (their length reaches 30 cm) and eat mainly by carrion, but can attack a person. True, because of its size, such a fish will definitely not be able to get into the urethra.

Thus, the allegations of the Amazon fish climbing the urinary tract of a person are based on the stories of the 19th century travelers, who, in turn, referred to local residents, but they themselves never saw such attacks. In recent decades, confirmed attacks on a person have not been recorded.

Image on the cover: Pisces Conservation LTD.