@@FieryMeltman The joke is that some of them could mutate to being even scarier (eg. pop-culture kaiju mutation). The joke is very inaccurate (because that's not how mutation works) but it is very funny.
Makes me remember this story here in my area. A guy fell off the Kentucky Dam, and when divers were sent down to look for a body they popped back up, and rushed back to the boats. They refused to go back down because according to their own words, "Catfish the size of small cars were down there."
We had a fish tank when I was a kid, and I recall when my father first got the tank he put this plecostomus in there to help keep it clean. Years later, we were going to move, and over time many fish in that tank had died, been replaced, and so on. But not the first plecostomus. It had grown to the size of 21 inches and it did NOT want to go, so my father, having drained the tank and moved most of the fish for transport, went it for a grab to pick the sucker up as no net we had worked. He struggled, picked it up, screamed in pain, and tossed the sucker in the transport tank. Turns out, the plecostomus had gotten to large, the spikes on it's back were sharp enough and big enough to slice right through his hand. When we turned that one over to the fish store we bought him from, pretty sure Count D was the one who took it back.
Plecos are basically “the Tanks of the tank” Hardy enough to survive anything short of actually TRYING to kill them and Common Plecostomus grow to be 3 feet long. But most pet stores don’t tell people that until they already purchased it and they don’t have room for them anymore. Some pet stores take them back and sell them for people who plan on larger set ups but a lot of fish get abandoned in the nearest waterway, making them invasive species.
It’s interesting how much media can alter the perception of an animal. In reality, velociraptors are only about 2ft tall, covered in feathers, and used their big claws to jab at prey, rather than slice like in Jurassic park
I'm really excited to see some All-Stars from "River Monsters" here. Respect for Jeremy Wade, who managed to fish most of these. His show only ended because there was no legend he didn't manage catch before.
First time I ever heard of the candiru fish was in the Danish stand-up comedian Anders Matthesen's show _Tal for dig selv_ (i.e., "Speak for Yourself") from 2004. I still remember his introduction by heart after all these years: "There is a small fish in the Amazon called the candiru, whose everyday job is swimming up the urethra of larger animals -- including us humans -- where it gets stuck and lives off of blood and tissue... ... Where it *gets stuck* ... as in, 'with barbs'! Which means you can't just wait for it to let go, nor piss it out; the only way to get rid of it is surgically, by splitting penis length-wise like a Chinese spring roll! _[sees a male audience member wince]_ Si, señor!"
I learned about the candiru from watching The Rundown (2003) where Rosario Dawson's character talked about it to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's and Seann William Scott's characters and for the longest time I never peed in a body of water like a lake or stream.
It's honestly scary how intelligent catfish can be. They legit can be trained to do tricks which is terrifying considering how f off huge they can be- world record holder was 9ft long and 300lbs.
The candiru thing did happen at least once. I saw the picture of the fish after it was removed. And from what I remember they're attracted to the urea that is expelled from fish gills. Which is a what us in urine.
I remember a huge pufferfish that'd almost always come by my fishing spot. It's got a few of my hooks fully embedded in its teeth. It was just impossible to remove them. I took out at least 7 hooks over the years. I haven't been to that spot in a while. Kinda wonder if it's still alive.
