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Did This Tiny Fish Really Swim Up a Man’s Urethra? | Smartest Year Ever (June 17, 2025)
It’s Weird Animals Week on Smartest Year Ever—and today, Gordy investigates one of the most infamous creatures in the Amazon: the candiru, also known as the vampire fish.
This needle-thin parasite has a reputation that’s spread far beyond the rainforest—thanks to a viral legend that it swam into a man’s urethra. But how much of that is true? And how did this obscure fish become one of the most feared animals in the world, despite being only a few inches long?
In this episode, Gordy digs into the science, the myth, and the real biology of a translucent fish that feeds on blood, lurks in murky waters, and somehow still manages to be one of the least understood creatures on Earth.
🦇 Yesterday we talked about vampire bats. 🩸 Today, it’s vampire fish. Tomorrow? You’ll just have to wait and see.
Like, comment, and subscribe to stay on the quest to become the World’s Greatest Conversationalists.
Sources:
Spotte, S. (2002). Candiru: Life and Legend of the Bloodsucking Catfishes. Creative Arts Book Company.
de Carvalho, M. R., et al. (2013). The case of the alleged candiru invasion of the human urethra in Brazil. Journal of Fish Biology, 82(1), 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.12029
Shepard, G. H. (2004). A sensory ecology perspective on the Candiru. Amazonian Ethnobiology, 9(3), 305–312.
French, K. (2011). The fish that isn’t: myths and misrepresentations of the candiru. Skeptic Magazine, 17(1), 38–43.
#AnimalFacts #CandiruFish #VampireFish #Candiru #WeirdAnimals #biologyfacts #wildnature #DailyFacts #DidYouKnow
Music thanks to Zapsplat.
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By GordyIt’s Weird Animals Week on Smartest Year Ever—and today, Gordy investigates one of the most infamous creatures in the Amazon: the candiru, also known as the vampire fish.
This needle-thin parasite has a reputation that’s spread far beyond the rainforest—thanks to a viral legend that it swam into a man’s urethra. But how much of that is true? And how did this obscure fish become one of the most feared animals in the world, despite being only a few inches long?
In this episode, Gordy digs into the science, the myth, and the real biology of a translucent fish that feeds on blood, lurks in murky waters, and somehow still manages to be one of the least understood creatures on Earth.
🦇 Yesterday we talked about vampire bats. 🩸 Today, it’s vampire fish. Tomorrow? You’ll just have to wait and see.
Like, comment, and subscribe to stay on the quest to become the World’s Greatest Conversationalists.
Sources:
Spotte, S. (2002). Candiru: Life and Legend of the Bloodsucking Catfishes. Creative Arts Book Company.
de Carvalho, M. R., et al. (2013). The case of the alleged candiru invasion of the human urethra in Brazil. Journal of Fish Biology, 82(1), 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.12029
Shepard, G. H. (2004). A sensory ecology perspective on the Candiru. Amazonian Ethnobiology, 9(3), 305–312.
French, K. (2011). The fish that isn’t: myths and misrepresentations of the candiru. Skeptic Magazine, 17(1), 38–43.
#AnimalFacts #CandiruFish #VampireFish #Candiru #WeirdAnimals #biologyfacts #wildnature #DailyFacts #DidYouKnow
Music thanks to Zapsplat.