Although many mentions of the candir can be found on-line and in popular books and magazines, scientific accounts of the fish and its unfortunate habits are old and suspiciously few. Most of what we know comes from the 1930 book The Candir by Dr. Eugene W. Gudger of the American Museum of Natural History, plus a couple additional articles published in the '40s. All sources insist that the incredible story is true, but for evidence they rely mostly on vague second- or thirdhand reports from missionaries, doctors, natives, and the like. Whatever the truth may be, there's little doubt that the candir , formally known as Vandellia cirrhosa , is capable of attacking humans in the manner described. A type of catfish, the candir is known to lodge in the gill cavities of larger fish, where it subsists by sucking the blood of its host.
Specimens average three inches in length and a quarter inch in diameter.
A fast, powerful swimmer, the fish is smooth and slimy, with sharp teeth and backward-pointing spines on its gill covers that make it virtually impossible to remove. Still, it's difficult to imagine how even the most agile of fishes could squirm into someone's penis during a brief dip in the water, and in fact one account says women are much more likely to be candir victims due to the greater dimensions of the female aperture. The juice of this fruit is brewed into a tea and drunk hot, supposedly causing the skeleton of the fish to dissolve and resulting in its expulsion from the victim within a couple hours. Some elements of the candir legend are clearly exaggerated. Just the same, next time my yacht cruises down the Amazon, I ain't peeing over the side.