Anglers at Lake Michigan have cabbage a surprising guest this summertime , a piranha - like Pisces native to South America with a rather creepy-crawly defining feature : human - like tooth .
Over the past month , at least three of these crimson - bellied pacus , a relative of the piranha ordinarily found in the tender waters of the Orinoco and Amazon rivers , have popped up across Michigan . According tothe Michigan Department of Natural Resources ( DNR ) , they have probably been illicitly dump in the lakes by favourite - owners who no longer wanted to keep them in aquariums .
Imported from South America as part of the USA ’s billion - buck ornamental fish industry , pacus are popular with aquarium owner because of their strange and eldritch man - look tooth , which are in reality used to chomp on nut and seeds , giving them the byname “ vegetarian piranhas ” .
The pacu has also clear an unlikelyreputationfor being a “ ballock - eating fish ” after a professor at the Copenhagen Museum of Natural History warned local man to beware when bathing nude in case the Pisces mistook their pate gem for their favorite tree nuts . After receive a muckle of reports on the fish attacking manful genitals , the prof had to clear up it had been a caper .
Unfortunately ( or luckily ) , the pacus often give their owners a unlike kind of shock – their size . They can grow up to 89 centimeter ( 3 feet ) in length , often outgrowing their tanks , top to illegal dumping in a convenient torso of water .
It may have been a filthy surprise for the angler who accidentally hooked this strange - looking fish , but we ca n’t imagine the pacu , going from swimming in a warm tank to get itself in the cold waters of Lake Michigan , where summer piss temperature average 15.5 ° coke ( 60 ° F ) , bask it either .
According to the DNR , the pacusare not considered an invading speciesto the lakes , as they are native tropical warm water Pisces so are improbable to live on the abrasive winters of Michigan . However , this increase in strike non - native mintage is shining a spotlight on the problem of people release pets into the natural state .
" Pacus ' temperature prerequisite are tropical , and Michigan is not a tropic state , " Nick Popoff of the Fisheries Division of the DNR toldLive Science . " They ’re not become to be capable to survive our winters , so we do n’t consider them invasive . We ’re implicated with this because it highlights the issue of pet proprietor free their pets into the state of nature . "
It endure without saying , dumping unwanted pets is not a skillful approximation .
