Pool 4 Piranha!

My facebook friend posted this picture. According to him, the DNR confirmed that it is a pirahna. It was caught by his co-worker’s daughter.

BK-still skinny dipping?

Attachments:

1. 

   pool4piranha.jpg
   

Looks more like a pacu than a piranha.

That’s a big girl.

What the heck?

I think that fish would be surprised in a couple of months when the water started to get cold.

Almost every year pictures of piranhas and the like appear. Usually in the fall with the fish start freezing to death and are found floating. Last year I remember a couple of stories on the news about people finding or catching them.

Usual story. Jackwagons that think it’s cool get one for the aquarium in their parent’s basement and then get tired of feeding it so they dump it in a lake or river.

Grouse

Pacu. They have teeth like human molars, but in the front that are used to crush nuts from trees that fall into the water. Legend has it, according to at least one “Monster” fish show, they will also mistaken man-nuts for food.

They are closely related to piranha…according to wiki…

With those teeth and that last comment that just hurt thinking about it.

+1…………..

Hi everyone,

I was the one who identified the fish for the DNR. We informed the family that the fish appeared to be a Red-Bellied Pacu, sometimes confused with members of the piranha family that eat meat (primarily the Red-Bellied Piranha). Pacu are in the same family (Characidae) as the piranha, but a different genus.

Pacu are fruit and nut eaters native to South America though they will eat small fish and in this case worms if their preferred foods are unavailable. Most Pacu captured are the result of folks with aquariums dumping fish that are either unwanted or have outgrown the aquarium (this is illegal).

I attempted to age the Pacu at the young girls request and found that it was likely less than two years old, though aquarium fish kept in constant conditions indoors lay down very poor aging rings (annuli) making absolute accuracy difficult at best.

This is the second Pacu that I am aware of from Pool 4/Lake Pepin with the last one being caught in a commercial net in 2002 or 2005 I apologize I don’t have my records here at home. I have also heard reports of individuals from other pools and lakes in MN (see map in link below).

More information:
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=427

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and have a good weekend,

Nick

Nick Schlesser
[email protected]
651-345-3365 ext 235
Large Lake Specialist (Lake Pepin/Pool 4)
1801 S Oak St
Lake City, MN 55041

Learning more on Ido by accident then other places by design… Thanks Nick!

Brian Klawitter wrote:

Learning more on Ido by accident then other places by design… Thanks Nick!

X2 Thanks for the info, very interesting.

Do they live through the winters here? Curious.