Bizzare fish with scary-looking teeth throw scare into lake community.

The discovery of an alien fish species in a small lake in Illinois has put locals and tourists on edge because the fish posses dangerous-looking teeth and bear a striking resemblance to ravenous piranha.

This saga began when a NewsChannel 5 viewer informed the station that piranhas were being caught by fishermen in Lake Lou Yaeger, which is located in the community of Litchfield.

(One fish was captured on June 7 and a second was reportedly hooked more recently.)

It seemed eerily like a landlocked version of "Jaws," but without the enormous shark and corny lines, such as, "I think we're going to need a bigger boat."

Lake-goers and officials were understandably concerned because piranhas are flesh-tearing predators that, according to popular belief, can reduce large animals -- or people -- to skeletons in minutes..

link

There is a short video and the rest of the story in the link.

I wanted to post this because this is freaky. My son and I watched Jeremy Wade catch one of these in the show River Monsters. It is crazy because it gets pretty cold around here in the winter.

I do not think that I would swim in that water again. I know that they say that these fish eats nuts but.....not my nuts

I also love how they keep referencing the movie Jaws.

reply to post by liejunkie01


It's a Pacu, the vegetarian cousin of the Piranha. Nothing to worry about... Unless your made out of aquatic vegatation.

reply to post by liejunkie01

I've seen that fish before but I can't put the name on it. Its teeth are human-like.

reply to post by usuallyfaded

Where is it from? South America or Asia?

reply to post by aaaiii


Sorry, company just showed up and I had to step away for a minute.

Pacu (Portuguese pronunciation: [paˈku]) is a common name used to refer to several species of omnivorous South American freshwater fish that are related to the piranha. Pacu and piranha don't have similar teeth, although the main difference is jaw alignment; piranha have pointed, razor-sharp teeth in a pronounced underbite, whereas pacu have squarer, straighter teeth like a human in a less severe underbite, or a slight overbite.[1] Additionally, full-grown pacu are much larger than piranha, reaching up to 3 feet and 55 pounds in weight, in the wild.

link

looks fake

reply to post by Ben81


Somebody reads threads thoroughly.

How in the hell did these Pacu end up in that lake?

Originally posted by EvanJP
reply to post by Ben81

 

Somebody reads threads thoroughly.

How in the hell did these Pacu end up in that lake?

Fish with human teethlike .. many have attempted to make hoax
and in the image around the teeth its conveniently way to white
its impossible for fish to have teeth like that

sorry i dont buy this story
maybe a 2 head fish or a cyclop cat but not a fish with good looking human teeth
fish jaws are just not made to have square teeths

reply to post by EvanJP


Someone probably had them as a pet. Fish stores sell them. Of course, once they reach full maturity they are to big for most tanks. So released into local lakes.

Just a guess.

Saw these on an episode of River Monsters. They have a bigger relative, look almost exactly alike, that will attack/eat people. There were several locals on the show that had been attacked and said it felt like a person was biting them. Now, to figure out who put them in there. Pacu were introduced to rivers , where they are not native, to give the local tribes a larger food source.

My cousin has 6 of them in a very large plywood aquarium on his back patio. They grow to a large size! During the juvenile stage they have the distinctive red coloring on the belly, similar to Piranha. Upon maturing. They turn a uniform silver. Beautiful fish. In nature they swim under Brazil nut trees and wait for the plop of the nut falling. They also eat pretty much any vegetation available. As far as introduced invasive species go they can be quite bad. In the USA they are sold in the LFS.

Originally posted by Ben81

Originally posted by EvanJP
reply to post by Ben81

 

Somebody reads threads thoroughly.

How in the hell did these Pacu end up in that lake?

Fish with human teethlike .. many have attempted to make hoax
and in the image around the teeth its conveniently way to white
its impossible for fish to have teeth like that

sorry i dont buy this story
maybe a 2 head fish or a cyclop cat but not a fish with good looking human teeth
fish jaws are just not made to have square teeths

edit on 6/30/2012 by Ben81 because: (no reason given)

Strange and creepy as they may be, this is real, not a hoax.

Pacu (Portuguese pronunciation: [paˈku]) is a common name used to refer to several species of omnivorous South American freshwater fish that are related to the piranha. Pacu and piranha don't have similar teeth, although the main difference is jaw alignment; piranha have pointed, razor-sharp teeth in a pronounced underbite, whereas pacu have squarer, straighter teeth like a human in a less severe underbite, or a slight overbite. en.wikipedia.org...

HA! My teeth should be so perfect! I'll bet you could make dentures from those!

reply to post by aaaiii


South America. They have been introduced to many areas. In southern asia they were introduced to feed the peoples. It worked... At a cost. Being an alien species they devastate local vegetation. As all omnivores will do when there natural food source is unavailable they have taken to eating smaller prey items as well as plants.

Who cares what it looks like, vegi eating fish are GREAT EATING.

Filet that bad boy and dig in!

Jokes aside, this was probably some ones pet and they released it into the lake after it out grew their tank. Smlygirl is right on, methinks.

reply to post by liejunkie01


Dont most salmon species get teeth later in their developmental cycle?

So what the big deal?

reply to post by Wertdagf


That is no salmon, fellow member.

Salmon do get a big sharp set of choppers by the time they mature sexually.

reply to post by windword


damn .. that is some creepy teeths
it could snap your finger in 1 sec

is it a new fish specie ?
could radiations create such anormalities in fish ?

Originally posted by Ben81
reply to post by windword

 

damn .. that is some creepy teeths
it could snap your finger in 1 sec

is it a new fish specie ?
could radiations create such anormalities in fish ?

edit on 6/30/2012 by Ben81 because: (no reason given)

No, its not radiation.

No, its not a new species.

No, it coulnt snap your finger off in one second.

Yes, you should scroll up and read the entire thread.

reply to post by W3RLIED2


Im just saying that this scare obviously has its origins in ignorance...

Many fish get teeth. 99% of fresh water fish dont eat people.... living people.

Originally posted by Wertdagf
reply to post by W3RLIED2

 

Im just saying that this scare obviously has its origins in ignorance...

Many fish get teeth. 99% of fresh water fish dont eat people.... living people.

Definitely. I understand your point, and I agree!

Its just a fish, no reason to be so scared about it. Especially since the species eats veggies and not human toes.