‘Invasive’ fish with sharp, human-like teeth discovered in rec area lake
The a-pacu-lypse is upon us.
As if US waterways weren’t teeming with enough invasive fish of late, a Texas angler caught a South American piranha relative with “human teeth” at a local lake on Sunday.
The fish, dubbed a pacu, was bagged at Lake Meredith in Sanford and is currently housed at the Lake Meredith Aquatic & Wildlife Museum, which posted a video of the interloper to Facebook.
According to the post, the pacu hails from the freshwater bodies of South America and, while it is closely related to the carnivorous piranha, it is actually vegetarian.
The red and silver panfish subsists on nuts and berries, which is why its chompers “look similar to human teeth,” according to the post.
Wildlife museum staffers believe the pacu was “released into Meredith by someone who may have owned it as a pet.”
Unfortunately, the species — which grows to 6.5 inches long and 88 pounds — can rapidly outgrow aquariums, prompting owners to release them into the wild.
In fact, the pacu was first introduced in the 1980s “by means of aquarium releases,” per the US Department of Agriculture, which states that some may have escaped aquaculture facilities as well.
Since then, the herbivorous invader has been caught in 47 states. Last August, an 11-year-old Oklahoma boy bagged a pacu in the pond behind his family’s house.
Fortunately, the species hasn’t established any “reproducing populations here,” and the full impact of pacu release is currently unknown.
However, the critter has made inroads into Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Mexico, China, the Philippines and other parts of Asia.
The species was even featured in an episode of the Animal Planet show “River Monsters,” where it was blamed for killing unsuspecting swimmers by biting them on their genitals.
Fortunately, no such attacks have been reported in the US.
