Abstract
Since the beginning of the eighteenth century, when European natural scientists travelled in the regions of the river Amazonas and its tributaries to study the new amazing world of plants and animals, several reports are available on the existence of tiny fish, which allegedly enter the sexual organs and the anus of female and male humans. However, an exact check of the literature shows that only very few cases are seriously documented and that most reports come just from hearsay. Fact is that very tiny (i.e., young) specimens of the fish Vandellia cirrhosa with a size of less than 2–4 cm in length may enter the genital openings of naked humans while swimming in fresh waters. Such penetrations, however, are also known from tiny leeches.
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Mehlhorn, H. (2014). Myth and Reality: Candiru, the Bloodsucking Fish That May Enter Humans. In: Klimpel, S., Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Bats (Chiroptera) as Vectors of Diseases and Parasites. Parasitology Research Monographs, vol 5. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39333-4_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39333-4_10
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