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

Originally posted by froglette
Looks like a Sheepshead.

Damn! Double row uppers! I need teeth like that!

I have dental issues and am sooooo jealous right now!

reply to post by liejunkie01


If you enjoy Talapia, you would enjoy one of these toothy buggers.

reply to post by usuallyfaded


I am eating dinner right now.

I will watch the vids later.

I am pretty ticked off right now. Pizza Hut screwed up my order again and I have to run back up there. I just thought I would share this little bit of info

Thanks for the vids.

reply to post by W3RLIED2


Talapia is a good fish.

I just might have to try one. I am currently looking for a small jon boat. When I score one me and my son will probably take a trip one weekend.

I am curious to know how many there are in the lake. I might have to make it a whole weekend trip.

reply to post by W3RLIED2


I lived in Hawaii, where Talapia is an invasive species, due to people releasing their pet fish into the eco-system. They would run these PSA's showing the invasive species flopping around in irrigation ditches and sewage drains. I could never eat Talapia after seeing those images!

My loss.

Originally posted by liejunkie01
reply to post by usuallyfaded

 

I am eating dinner right now.

I will watch the vids later.

I am pretty ticked off right now. Pizza Hut screwed up my order again and I have to run back up there. I just thought I would share this little bit of info

Thanks for the vids.

Damn Pizza Hut and their shenanigans... Enjoy the vids.

reply to post by windword


Talapia is a great eating fish... Without deviating the thread too much i will say that when i fish the great lakes i target those elusive things. I can understand that seeing them in some of the less apealing habitats would make you not want to eat one, but for your taste buds sake you should ditch those bad memories. Truly a fine eating fish.

Light tackle is key when you fish for em. 6 pound test with a small baitholder type hook.

reply to post by froglette

No it's not a Sheepshead although they do have some similarities of the mouth. I've had Red Belly Pacu's which these are, that I kept in a large African Cichlid tank along with a couple of Oscars and Clown knifes. They're harmless to humans but they'll eat almost anything. I fed mine bloodworms, earth worms, shrimp, broccoli, spinach, cichlid pellets, grapes and nuts. They're definitely not picky eaters and they love to eat. This is a major concern for the native species though and a real possibility of wiping out the vegetation in the area. I read an article yrs ago about them being introduced in a region and killing off the vegetation. I'll have to look for that info. Like I said, they love to eat and they grow very quickly, so it's a very valid concern they have with the Pacu's.

I kept fish for a while, some years ago...

I had several goldfish in a rectangular tank, that sat on a cedar chest, and I had a nifty hexagonal, tall tank that sat on an iron-wrought base, so the top of the tank was around eye level. In the haxagonal tank, I had more agressive fish, like tiger barbs, silver dollars, neons, etc.

I used to pick up ghost shrimp and feeder fish for the aggressive fish pretty regularly. The goldfish seemed happy with the water plants I had growing in the tank, and flake food. One time, I had added feeder fish to the aggressive tank, but one of the feeders was not eaten and instead, it ended up growing bigger. I thought, "oh, ok, this fellow wasn't eaten and he has grown big enough now that the aggressive fish aren't going to eat him, so I will move him over to the goldfish tank and he can just live on, more power too him."

But, what happened is this... I moved the surviving feeder fish to the goldfish tank, and the goldfish, who had grown fairly large, promptly attacked, killed, and ate him. I was wierded out, since I hadn't seen them eat anything but flakes and plants. It was like watching a cow kill and eat a dog - very odd.

The video of the pacu eating the mouse made me feel that same creepy feeling all over again!!

reply to post by liejunkie01


Take a look at this crazy guy!!!

I personally feel that they should outlaw the sale of Pacu's. They grow so quickly that it's very common for people to dump them in the lakes. A lot of people that buy Pacus, buy them as this cute little fish in a little tank, only to find out that they grow to the size of a 30 gl tank and are willing to eat anything and everything. Odds are pretty good that who ever introduced these had a tank that was 100 gls or smaller. I had a 225 gl tank and it even started getting crowded with the few large fish I had. I ended up selling the fish to a guy that had a very large tank built into his living rm wall. They're just NOT a good home aquarium fish but they sell a lot of them. I don't think most people buying Pacu's realize what they're getting into, they grow extremely fast.

reply to post by liejunkie01


Pic of that fish looks like a snakehead imo.

A sheephead has bigger teeth,,,like a horse..

reply to post by avatard


And it definately is not a sheepshead..........

First thought was piranha as well. Saw a documentary on bite strength and the flesh eating piranha have different teeth. They also bite much harder than the flesh eating variety but it took them forever to get the veggie piranha to bite.

reply to post by smyleegrl


In my environment class I took that happens a lot more then you'd think.

They need to up the penalty for releasing new species to a federal felony with stiff fines. I'm not sure how you would catch the people that do this, but you've seen what's happened in Florida, and now pirahna (and pacu) are showing up in our lakes and upsetting the ecosystem. The people that do this are no better than those that start forest fires.

reply to post by wingdflame

Yes, It's very irresponsible. The people doing this may think they're doing the right thing but the opposite is true. Take for instance, the panic in Oregon when the dock from Japan washed upon the shores with many invasive species that were non-indigenous to the area. Introducing a foreign species can be disastrous to the the local eco system.

Originally posted by MR_UNSMiLey
It's funny how we view fish with human-like teeth as creepy - I wonder if there were a species of fish that had the same amount of intelligence as the human race if they would find our teeth creepy. That being said, it's only a matter of time before somebody uses Photoshop and slaps braces on the fish!

Or some gold grillz!

If you want to see something even creepier....How about these "Human-Faced fish"

reply to post by bhornbuckle75


WTH is that? I was freaked out enough to see fish with teeth that look human. I keep tropical fish but none of mine have teeth I can see very well. I'm actually getting out of the hobby after all my fish die someday, because I am sick of dealing with the havoc wrought on my equipment by all the power outages we keep having.

I don't know how easy it is to go after the morons who release their pet fish into the wild. It would probably be wiser to regulate the sellers. Where I live the economy hasn't been kind to independent LFS and there are not many left. Some are good at warning customers about the limitation of their setups in supporting certain species, but I've had plenty of situations where I had to go up to a fellow customer and warn them for example that the fish they were getting to clean algae in the tank would soon grow to fill their tank and prey on their other fish, because the seller was clearly banking on ignorance to make the sale.

Okay I did a web search and saw other articlescand pictures...the "face" is just markings and the fish's real eyes are normal and easily missed above those shocking face like markings.