piranahs are over-rated

[Asian_Redtail_Catfish]

Notice that no citation is attached to that article, this was from an unsupported newspaper article that used the fact that bodies were recovered with piranha bites on them, no documented case of piranha actually killing people is on record from at least as far back as the 70s though there are many cases of serious bites.
Interestingly enough there are 2 recorded cases of pacus killing net fishermen. This happened in New Guinea where they were introduced as a food fish. The net men tend to fish naked and in 2 cases fishermen have had their testicles bitten off and died of blood loss and shock.

By the way, I like piranha.
It is just unfortunate that some people expect them to be psychotic killers instead of the beautiful, and effective predators that they are.

It is written all over the net that the piranhas were blamed for killing 300 people when their boats flipped over..I like piranhas, not because they are man eaters it is because they are predatory..Here are the refrences where they said a school of piranhas are blamed for killing 300 people when their boat flipped.. There were survivors from the attack, 168 survivors:

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/InNews/thames2004.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1152603,00.html

Death number 69:
http://morticom.com/truestoriesdeath.htm

 

[guppy]

I read those, still no attributation and one glaring error, I know of no piranha capable of taking a 6" chunk of flesh in one bite.

"And their powerful jaws can devour 6in (15.24cm) of flesh with every bite."

Here are the original AP wire reports,

September 20, 1981 World News 300 DIE AS AMAZON BOAT SINKS
AP
An Amazon riverboat sank in the northern jungle port of Obidos today and port officials said that more than 300 people were missing and feared drowned. Capt. Elio Palhares said in a telephone interview that 178 of the 500 people thought to have been aboard had swum to safety or been saved.

September 20, 1981 World News Brazilians Find 10 Bodies In Amazon Boat Wreck
UPI
Only 10 bodies have been recovered so far in a search for 300 people missing here in yesterday's sinking of an overloaded Amazon riverboat. A team of 15 divers went into the water to break into cabins and clear cargo to reach passengers who drowned in the holds.

September 21, 1981 World News "

a follow up from UPI,
"Rescue workers found 100 more bodies inside a capsized Amazon River steamer today, raising the death toll to at least 230. The overcrowded 80-foot river boat Novo Amapo sank Tuesday in treacherous currents just off Belem de Cajari, a hamlet 100 miles upriver from the boat's destination of Macapa on the Amazon delta.

January 10, 1981 World News
MORE ON SHIPS AND SHIPPING AND: ACCIDENTS AND SAFETY, DROWNINGS, BRAZIL"

I think I go with these rather than the Guardian or papers quoting the Guardian.
This is the cover sheet of a report written for the Brazilian government in 2001-2002,

"Piranha Attacks on Humans in Southeast Brazil: Epidemiology, Natural History, and Clinical Treatment, With Description of a Bite Outbreak
Vidal Haddad, Jr, MD, PhD; Ivan Sazima, PhD, BSc

From the Department of Dermatology, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil (Dr Haddad), and the Department of Zoology and Natural History Museum, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil (Dr Sazima)



There are many tales describing ferocious schools of piranha attacking humans, but there are few scientific data supporting such behavior. The very few documented instances of humans attacked and eaten by piranha schools include 3 that occurred after death by other causes (eg, heart failure and drowning). These predaceous fishes, however, do occasionally injure bathers and swimmers in lakes and rivers. The characteristic profile of most injuries is a single bite per victim, generally related to the fish defending its brood. This paper describes an outbreak of piranha bites in a dammed river portion in southeast Brazil. The outbreak was caused by the speckled piranha, Serrasalmus spilopleura, a widespread species which benefits from the growing tendency of damming rivers all over Brazil. This article focuses on the epidemiological and clinical aspects of the injuries, as well as on piranha biology, to gain a better understanding of the natural history of bite outbreaks."

here is the link for the full text.

http://www.wemjournal.org/wmsonline...&issn=1080-6032&volume=014&issue=04&page=0249

There are a lot of things written all over the net that simply aren't true, I'm pretty sure this is one of them.

 

[Redtail_Watcher]

Notice that no citation is attached to that article, this was from an unsupported newspaper article that used the fact that bodies were recovered with piranha bites on them, no documented case of piranha actually killing people is on record from at least as far back as the 70s though there are many cases of serious bites.
Interestingly enough there are 2 recorded cases of pacus killing net fishermen. This happened in New Guinea where they were introduced as a food fish. The net men tend to fish naked and in 2 cases fishermen have had their testicles bitten off and died of blood loss and shock.

By the way, I like piranha.
It is just unfortunate that some people expect them to be psychotic killers instead of the beautiful, and effective predators that they are.

hey there is a story on real tv, that a guy goes in the water with shorts in a muddy/cloudy water and come out with a painful injury, in his penis. (he was cryin in pain!) there was a tiny fish that dislodge itself inside the man's penis it had spines. the guy did not die from it although he mange to get it out. (i think it was a tiny catfish.) when the fish was stressed the fish would puff it self up.

 

[Redtail_Watcher]

take this for thought will ya??

turth, is the most dangerous fish is either posionious! or Electrical!

like japanese puffer fishes(kill alot of people, turth already.) or stingrays in the wild(non intended, i like stingrays.) Imagine if you stuck standing around in a tank full of 3-4ft electrical eels and electrical catfishes that can produce simeltaineously up to 2,000watts of electricity!
one full grown adult eel can produce up to 500watts alone! and a full grown electrical cat can produe up to 350-400watts.

 

[ChrisG23]

I liked the 7 red bellies i kept, but every time you walk by the tank they would try to jump out. or they would slam face first into the glass, i felt so bad, that i moved my tank into my room where there was less traffic.

 

[guppy]

Redtail. That is the candiru catfish, It often take surgery to remove them. Normally they feed on blood from the gills of larger fish.

 

[Darth Vader]

One question you have to ask yourself is "why am I keeping Piranhas?"If the answer is I like watching them chew up and devour goldfish and other lifeforms, then you are keeping them for ALL the wrong reasons.

 

[dmopar74]

One question you have to ask yourself is "why am I keeping Piranhas?"If the answer is I like watching them chew up and devour goldfish and other lifeforms, then you are keeping them for ALL the wrong reasons.

 

[Redtail_Watcher]

if you ever watch how a catfish eats? my Rtc ate 3-4 parahanias that where 6inches and my rtc was only 14inches, that is in one night.

 

[Redtail_Watcher]

Redtail. That is the candiru catfish, It often take surgery to remove them. Normally they feed on blood from the gills of larger fish.

That's it!....
at first i figured it was, a catfish because it is the only fish(had to been tiny/small enough)that could be in a guy pee hole like that, and have spines and be slender at the same time.

here is a website about the tiny catfish. http://images.search.yahoo.com/sear...jpeg&no=6&tt=39&oid=38e469d0fca68ade&ei=UTF-8.