Best not to go swimming in the lake this summer, with this fish on the prowl.
A New Jersey family discovered this piranha type of fish when fishing at a local lake, and it is far from ordinary, sporting human-like teeth and a fondness for biting testicles, via Daily Mail
Ron Rossi, from the Philadelphia suburb of Delran, was out with his son Frank at a man-made body of water when they hooked what they thought was a piranha.
However, the rare species in Swedes Lake was actually a pacu, an omnivorous fish native to Brazil that has human-like teeth and has been reported to eat the testicles of swimmers and fishermen.
The Rossis realized the bizarre find when they went home and researched the animal after being confused at its lack of sharp, piranha chompers, they told WPVI.
Department of Environmental Protection officials said the South American fish are sometimes kept as pets, who may have dumped the pacu into the lake.
The species can grow up to four feet long and uses its molar-like teeth to crush food that falls into the Amazon River.
Many pet owners mistakenly think they are piranhas when they purchase the more famous species’s cousin, which can grow up to 55lbs.
Given the fish’s worldwide popularity, it turns out that the Rossis did not make the surprise catch of the century, or even of the last couple years.
A 10-inch pacu was caught in northern New Jersey in September 2013, followed by 17-incher in Washington state, a 20-inch specimen in southern Illinois two months later and a 14-inch pacu in Michigan’s Lake St Clair last summer.
The fish’s worldwide popularity has seen them spread far from their Brazilian homeland, with the fish being found in Paris, Scandinavia and Oceania.
In Papua New Guinea, where the fish is known as the ‘Ball Cutter’, a member of the species is thought to have contributed to two men’s death from blood loss after it castrated them.
Scientists in Denmark said that reports of pacu eating genitalia were ‘overblown’ after they issued a joking warning to male swimmers to beware following a sighting of the fish, according to National Geographic.
Yeah, it’s best just to hit the waterpark until these things go extinct.
H/T Geeks and Cleats