isee*TOTALLY OFF TOPIC* but this is another thing that makes me cringe more than anything in the wolrd!!
AHEM! Yes. Seriously, this is so harsh but it made me think of the whole piercing thing. ALso a warning to anyone who wants to take a pee in a river :O
This here is a candiru. It's the smallest species of catfish - the one in the picture is a little over 40 cm long. Its young 'uns are even smaller, about a tenth that length and are really slim, only .4 - .6 cm wide (this will be important later.) They're also spiny and replete with sharp bones (again, important later.) So why are these fish considered so assholic?
This fish feeds on blood. It's a parasite. It usually follows the stream of water expelled from the gills of larger fish and into the larger fish. There, it embeds itself and starts feeding. It's not discriminate, however, and will follow any warm stream of water, including urine. Because it's so small, its entry into one's urogenital opening causes only a slight tickle, "almost a sexual tickle," according to someone or other. Once in the urethra, however, it deploys its spikes, causing excruciating pain to the victim. Intense, non-stop pain, enough to make some victims resort to amputation and/or death. But wait, there's more! It causes massive bleeding in order to feed, which opens up the host to urinary tract infections and more pain. It also expands as its body fills with your blood. Again, more excruciating pain. Currently, this fish is only found in the Amazon and Oranoco Rivers in South America. However, it's only a matter of time before some big asshole bring some back and introduce them to other places, say, the Florida swamps, where other foreign catfish species are already dominating native fauna. Isn't that lovely?
Some more factoids about the candiru:
- More men have reported this happening to them, even though the fish is more likely to attack women.
- Xaqua plant and the Buitach Apple, if inserted into the urethra (causing yet more pain,) would poison, kill, and dissolve this fish, although there's always a trade off when one inserts a substance that can dissolve flesh into one's urogenital opening.
- The candiru can also be removed surgically.
- There's no quick way to stop the pain - both the aforementioned methods are very slow.
- This fish amuses me to no end.