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Pencil Catfishes
Trichomycteridae
The Trichomycteridae are a family of catfishes (order Siluriformes) commonly known as the pencil or parasitic catfishes. This family includes the infamous candiru fish, feared by some people for its alleged habit of entering into the urethra of humans. Another species is the life monsefuano, which was important to the Moche culture and still an important part of Peruvian cuisine.
8 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 447 known species
Typical Pencil Catfishes
subfamilyTrichomycterinae
Parasitic Catfishes
subfamilyStegophilinae
Vampire Catfishes
subfamilyVandelliinae
Longfin Pencil Catfishes
subfamilyTrichogeninae
Tiny Pencil Catfishes
subfamilyTridentinae
Miniature Pencil Catfishes
subfamilyGlanapteryginae
Psammophilic Pencil Catfishes
subfamilySarcoglanidinae
Chapada Pencil Catfishes
subfamilyCopionodontinae
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Trichomycteridae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 86113.