Posted on 08/19/2005 9:36:20 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
When fishing in the San Felipe Creek one can happen upon a variety of fish from bass to perch to armored catfish. In Domingo Garza Jr.’s case, he caught what he believed to be a piranha.
In actuality, the fish has been identified as a Piaractus brachypomus, better known as the Red-bellied Pacu.
The pacu is a cousin to the notorious piranha, and both are native to Central and South America, according to the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission Web site.
Garza, a 57-year-old resident of Del Rio, caught the strange, toothy fish in a section of San Felipe Creek just south of U.S. Highway 90, a popular swimming area for many locals.
According to Garza’s wife, Josefina, he caught the pacu using a live worm on the end of a hook with a can as his handhold.
The fish was hooked at approximately 1:30 a.m. on July 30.
Garza’s wife brought the fish to the News-Herald on Monday. Using a ruler, we determined it to be about 14 inches long from the tip of the nose to the tip of its tail, and about 8 1/2 inches wide from the top of the dorsal fin to the bottom of the belly.
We also determined that the fish had a total of 25 teeth, 12 on top and 13 on bottom. Its teeth were squarish, with sharp leading edges. Dr. Dan Foley III, a biology teacher at Sul Ross State University and Rio Grande College in Del Rio, said that is because the fish eats plant life as well as fruits and nuts that fall from trees, and needs the flat teeth to grind them up.
Foley stated that the fish is not a native and could possibly get to a size of 50 pounds when in open water.
As for how the fish got into the creek, Foley suspects it was probably somebody’s pet that became too big for its aquarium and was let go into the creek waters.
Because it is a fresh water fish, thriving in waters between 75 and 77 degrees, the pacu can survive quite well in the waters of southern Texas and Florida, said Foley.
Due to the close resemblance between the Red-bellied Piranha and the herbivorous pacu, routinely imported for the aquarium fish industry, it is very difficult for the untrained eye to determine the difference.
Foley said that one noticeable difference are the fish’s teeth.
“The pacu has two rows of teeth while the piranha only has one,” said Foley.
While the impact of the introduction of either species into the ecological system is not yet known, some biologists fear that the pacu could compete with native species, causing a reduction in numbers of those species.
Foley noted that he was very concerned about this finding, calling it a possible “ecological disaster”.
The pacu’s existence in the creek is also of great concern to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
“This is again evidence of people dumping aquarium fish into the creek, and that’s definitely not a good thing,” said TP&WD fisheries biologist Dr. Gary Garrett, who has studied the San Felipe Creek and the fish that live in it for nearly 30 years.
“This is a severe problem for the natural biota. It could conceivably crash the ecosystem,” Garrett said.
Foley also recalled another case involving the introduction of an exotic species into the creek, the armored catfish. This fish, commonly called a “sucker” fish, has all but obliterated some species of minnow and was introduced in the same fashion as the pacu, by humans.
Christine Foley, Dan’s wife, a biologist at Southwest Texas Junior College, noted that these fish will not only compete with other fish, but could also carry diseases that could kill other aquatic life.
It is also important to note that not only will a person affect the environment by releasing an exotic species of fish; they will also be breaking state law.
According to the Fisheries Commission, there has only been one documented capture of a piranha specimen (serrasalmus nattereri) in Texas. It was obtained from Boerne City Reservoir in Kendall County, Texas in the early 1980’s.
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Pacu Ping!
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I would say there is something fishy about this. :-)
Yep, I sure do. When I was in college a buddy of mine had a huge fishtank with six red piranha and one large pacu in it. We'd been drinking beer and he told me he didn't want to keep the pacu any more, so it came out of the tank and a knife came out of the drawer and I ended up pan frying it with some red chile sauce. It was actually quite tasty, (white, flaky meat), but there were a lot of bones.
Has there ever been an environmentalist whacko who hasn't co-opted alarmist rhetoric?
Brought the friggin fish in to the newspaper office, newspaper writes an article on the piranha look alike and the newspaper doesn't even have a picture of the thing?!?
Now THAT'S the ticket for a good cheap start to cut down on those swimming across the Rio Grande.
Let Texas introduce some more hybrid fresh water fish along the border.
Flaco: "Come on, Man. Let's swim across the borrrrder"
Jose: "No way, Man. Those feeshes will eat all my skin off!!" LOL.
Come on Gov. Perry. Here's a cheap way for you to pull your head out of your ass and make a stand on illegals here in Texas.
What about those fish that swim up ones pecker?
Not sure Matrix. They may be contacting you for one of their first guinea swimmers.
The Candiru
It swims up other "channels" as well. Watch your backside. : )
Understood, you chicken. lol.
Now that the 3rd special session is over with nothing done AGAIN, maybe you and I can offer some of our elected RINO's and other elected idiots up in Austin a free 30 day trial visit to skinny dip in some of South Texas finest places.
Yikes, a urologist has pictures of the extraction surgery from that very appendage:
http://www.internext.com.br/urologia/Casosclinicos.htm
Thanks, elmer. Apparently they can grow up to 50 pounds!
Ouch!
It tastes just like those frogs that taste like chicken--or is it chickens that taste like frogs?
After all, frogs came first in time.
Pacu Ping!
The one I cooked was probably about 2 lbs, which looked pretty big in the fish tank, bigger than the piranha anyway.
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