The parasitic catfish of the subfamily Stegophilinae within the pencil catfish (Trichomycteridae) are famous and notorious as “Candirus”. They often specialize in blood as food and swim like little vampires into the gill cavity of large catfish, where they bite into a blood vessel and pump themselves full of the red elixir of life. Apparently they use the ammonium traces in the breathing water of the large catfish as a guide when hunting. When humans urinate underwater in the habitat of such Candirus, it can therefore happen that a Candiru swims into the urethra. If this happens, it is a death sentence for a human being without the help of a surgeon, as Candirus have spines on their heads with which they attach themselves to the urethra, making it impossible to pull them out. Needless to say, the stray Candirus soon die. A putrefaction process then begins and the infected people die from a severe urinary tract infection.
The genus Pareiodon belongs to these Candiruses. At present, only one species is assigned to the genus Pareiodon, namely P. microps, which is widely distributed in the Amazon basin. The photographed specimen comes from Peru. P. microps is too large for a human urethra. Adults reach a length of 9 cm (without caudal fin) or 11 cm (with caudal fin). P. microps is known to bite pieces out of the skin and gills of large food fish caught in nets.
It goes without saying that such animals only belong in the hands of researching specialists who know exactly what they are doing. The last time we had these catfish in the house was in 2006; they also ate tubifex and small food fish under aquarium conditions. We are now offering them again, but – for the reasons mentioned – only in very small numbers. We are only presenting this animal here because of its extreme rarity in the trade and as a warning, in case it should accidentally end up in a fish shipment.
For our customers: P. microps has code 276414 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
