Just what we need, a non native parasitic organism available for any idiot to introduce into the lakes or rivers when they tire of them.
I found candiru for sale.
- Thread starter fishhead0103666
- Start date
Behold, your worst nightmare for a mere $24.99 plus shipping....
https://www.aqua-imports.com/shop/product/leopard-candiru-catfish-ituglanis-amazonicus/
The candiru
That's my LFS... saw that on their stocklist the other day. I'm tempted to pick some up for my new tank just to freak people out
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Well, here he is. I put a deposit down for a pair, gonna set up a quarantine tank and bring them home later in the week. This should be fun
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There are many species of candiru and not all of them are parasitic. The one pictured definitely does not look like the one of legend though. Of the ones that are parasitic, some eat slime coats, scales, the eyes of other fish and blood. They are not an overall pleasant group of fish, though some do feed on more usual fish foods like tiny invertebrates.
I'm open to some suggestions. This is not one of them
.It certainly looks too big to fit up a urethra... at least, one would hope. I'm not finding much info on this fish, but it looks like this one is parasitic: https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=759 . I'll probably keep them in a 20g by themselves.
I’m just thinking out loud here.
Imagine getting a group of them and doing research on them over a long period of time (few years) on that specific candiru species and hopefully switching them over onto a more commonly available food such as pellets then work on breeding them. After years (maybe, maybe an exaggeration) of failures you finally get them to breed and you duplicate the scenario until you get it down to a science with over 50% of the fry surviving. After all that you start distributing them to other hobbyists so they can enjoy them too.
Once again I’m just thinking out loud or day dreaming if you will.
Imagine getting a group of them and doing research on them over a long period of time (few years) on that specific candiru species and hopefully switching them over onto a more commonly available food such as pellets then work on breeding them. After years (maybe, maybe an exaggeration) of failures you finally get them to breed and you duplicate the scenario until you get it down to a science with over 50% of the fry surviving. After all that you start distributing them to other hobbyists so they can enjoy them too.
Once again I’m just thinking out loud or day dreaming if you will.
You know, there has never been a confirmed case of a candiru actually attacking a human. There was a case where one supposedly attacked a woman once, complete with X-ray images, but it was debunked(maybe). It might have happenned a few times in world history, but a 16" fish an inch or more thick is not about to squeeze its way up a human penis. If such an attack where to happen, it would probably be a small specimen attacking a woman peeing (the pee may, but probably does not, attract candirus) in water higher then her waist. Even then, It would be by no means a likely occurance.
Wikipedia article:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candiru
Wikipedia article:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candiru
