Vandellia cirrhosa, just saying it is already hard for my lips to utter, is a small fish that is 2.5 cm long and 3.5 mm wide and lives in fresh water stream in the Amazon river basins in South America. What makes this one a scary fish? How can such a little fish be as scary as a huge great white shark or  a full-grown Orca?

I first found out about this fish when I was doing my research for my term paper, after reading it I found my self uncomfortably crossing my legs and thinking why a animal so cruel exist.  According to a college paper I read, "it normally is a parasite to other fish, will taste surrounding waters then follow any stream of nitrogenous waste excreted from gills of fish. Once the host is located, it swims up and under the gill, expands the spines on its own gills to hold it in place, and begins sucking the blood of the host gill, gnawing a hole to the blood vessels which usually proves fatal to its victim." That is what it does to other fishes, but the reason that it is is feared among native is because it is attracted to blood and urine, and if a bather is nude it will swim into an orifice, your orifice or who ever is the unlucky one, It then erects its spines and feeds on the blood and body tissue as it would the gills of a fish! It is then almost impossible to remove except through an operation, usually involving the amputation of the area.

Imagine that happening to you on one of your supposed to be relaxing vacations, not only will it give you pain that you never thought you would feel, but it will also leave you with an unpleasant and really embarrassing memory that you would wish you could have selective amnesia.