Vampire fish could be hitching rides from larger hosts

[Still Waters]

A team of researchers with Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande and Washington and Lee University has found evidence of candiru (aka vampire fish) attaching themselves to hosts but not feeding off of them. The team has published findings in Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria.

Vampire fish living in the waters of the Amazon River Basin swim into the gills of larger fish and attach themselves, where they then feed off their host's blood. They have also become known internationally due to sensational reports of them swimming up the urine streams of humans relieving themselves into a river and taking up internal residence.

In this new effort, the researchers have found evidence of one species of vampire fish hitching a ride on a much larger host fish for as yet unknown reasons.

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-vampire-fish-hitching-larger-hosts.html

https://aiep.pensoft.net/article/64324/