Cross your legs...

[Nanhesru Ningyake]

The next time you visit the Amazon river, DO NOT pee into the river - there exists a very thin parasitic catfish called Candir�. When it tastes your stream, it follows it back to you, and ahem, enters you, and lodges itself somewhere in the urinary tract with its spines. Then it gorges on both blood and body tissue. Gory, eh? Some say amputation of the private areas is the cheapest, and most life-changing, way to remove the fish.
You may uncross your legs now.

[John Bateman]

Holy C$%p!!
'Nuff said!

[Nathan Pruett]

I thought those lived in Afghanistan???

Though seriously... this sounds like an Urban Legend to me...

-Nate

[Jamie Robertson]

sounds like a penis piranha to me...youch!

[Dave Vick]

Adds new meaning to the phrase "I caught one this big".
Dave

[Nanhesru Ningyake]

>Though seriously... this sounds like an Urban Legend to me...
Sure sounds like one, but it's real. Read this

[Nathan Pruett]

Wow... I had to check up on this myself and found another link...
The Straight Dope.

The fish is real, and can do what is described above, however, according to the article on the site above:

Some elements of the candir� legend are clearly exaggerated. There are no confirmed reports of deaths or penectomies--several cases of the latter are thought to have run afoul of piranha. It's uncertain whether the candir� is actually "urinophilic," and as far as I know, no one seriously maintains that it can swim out of the water and up a urine stream. Just the same, next time my yacht cruises down the Amazon, I ain't peeing over the side.

The article also states that local natives have a remedy for this pelvic parasite that only involves drinking tea made from a certain fruit... so the solution given in the first post seems rather drastic...

So... it is true... but I wonder how being attacked by this fish statistically stacks up against things like winning the lottery or being struck by lightning?

-Nate
[This message has been edited by Nathan Pruett (edited September 19, 2001).]

[Greg Harris]

my uncle is a Urologist (doctor that works on the urinary system)... we joked about this fish a long time ago and he said that he knew about it, but would not have a clue how to treat it.
apparently, you have to be in the river (it is not going to swim "up the stream" if you are standing on a boat) and either not wearing any clothes, or not wearing anything under your shorts.
as for me, i am just not going to swim in the Amazon River! i would be more concerned with the piranah or snakes.

[Anonymous]

I would say the statistical odds of my having troubles with this particurlar fish is pretty low. They can't find very cheap airfare to Kansas from the Amazon delta.
Scarier even than the pee-loving fish is this info that came from the link provided in an earlier post. Flies on the brain