Local anglers have caught some unusual fish from the I.O.O.F. Park lake this week, leading the city to put up “no swimming” signs, according to Sharla Allen, parks director.
At first glance, the fish caught resembled a piranha. However, a late afternoon phone call Wednesday from a wildlife expert has everyone breathing easier — the fish is actually a “red-bellied pacu,” and presents no health or safety concern to humans, Allen said.
Quanah Malott of Corbet was fishing at the I.O.O.F. Lake Sunday with her granddaughter, Lacy Kate Severn, 7, when she caught one of the mysterious fish. She caught another Monday. Another angler caught a similar fish at the lake too, Allen said.
“I tell you the truth, I didn’t know what to think,” Malott said. “I’ve fished all my life and never caught anything that looked like that. Without thinking, I threw it back in the lake,” after catching it on Sunday, but first took a picture of the odd fish.
Malott said her daughter researched the rare find on the Internet and thought the fish might be a piranha, and told her to keep the next one if she caught another.
When Monday’s trip back to the park yielded another catch, Malott held on to the fish and notified the sheriff’s department, who referred her to city authorities. Allen launched a project to determine just exactly what the mystery catch was, which turned out not to be a piranha, as first feared.
Pacu resemble some South American fresh-water fish, and its scary cousin, the piranha. Both are toothy and aggressive with reddish coloring, according to Ken Kurzawski, a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife in Austin.
“We get a few calls each year of people catching these,” Kurzawski said Wednesday. “They’re almost always pacu. There’s only been a couple of piranha caught.”
The difference is in the protruding lower jaw of the piranha, which the I.O.O.F. fish don’t appear to have. Pacus are omnivores, which means they’ll eat plants and animals, while the piranha are strictly carnivores.
The exotic species get into local lakes and streams because their owners get tired of them, biologists explained.
“People use them in aquariums and they get rather large, like a lot of exotics, so people just take them out of their aquarium and release them in the lakes.”
Pacu haven’t been known to reproduce in Texas lakes, although they will survive for a while, Kurzawski said.
“I haven’t seen spots where a whole bunch of them build up where they’d be a problem for our native species,” he said. “There’s other fishes, like tilapia, that do reproduce and build up pretty big populations in lakes, but so far pacus haven’t shown that.”
Being exotics, the fish aren’t protected, so fishermen and women are welcome to catch all they can.
They are also delicious, said Richard Ott, a biologist who has spent some time in the Amazon. Ott works out of the Tyler office of the Texas Parks and Wildlife office.
“They’re absolutely fantastic to eat,” Ott said.
He said the fish are often the former pets of young men who find themselves overwhelmed with the care and feeding of fish that have gone well past the guppy stage. Then, after being dumped in a local lake, they’re caught by anglers.
“People think they’re piranha and they get all upset, but 99.9 percent of the time they’re pacu,” Ott said.
Even before finding out the fish was not a piranha, Malott was determined to keep on fishing.
“I told them I didn’t care if there was a great white shark in there, we were going to fish,” Malott said. “Sitting on the bank I’m not scared of nothing.”
Pacu are fruit-eating fish in their native South American waters, Ott said.
In Corsicana, they’ve been biting on earthworms and weenies, according to Allen.
“Oscar Meyer beef weenies,” said Malott.
—————
Click here to e-mail Janet Jacobs.
Click here to Soundoff on this story.
Latest News
Related Photos
Not your ordinary keeper
Mystery fish caught at I.O.O.F. park this week not a piranha
- Latest News
-
-
Frost’s Carson named KLTY Radio ‘Teacher of the Month’
Janet Carson, who has been a teacher at Frost Elementary School for 14 years, was named KLTY’s Teacher of the Month for September, an award she accepted on Wednesday.
-
Hooked on Fishing to return
The 11th annual Hooked on Fishing tournament for children will take place from 7 a.m. until about noon Sept. 25 at the I.O.O.F. Park in Corsicana.
-
Storms move out of county
As the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine moved into Oklahoma Wednesday afternoon, the last of the heavy rains associated with the storm moved through Navarro County, leaving behind rainfall amounts of up to 6 inches in the area.
-
Twisters strike Dallas
The remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine swept northward through Texas and into Oklahoma on Wednesday, forcing dozens of high-water rescues, swamping city neighborhoods, spawning tornadoes and killing at least two people.
-
Local Beat 9/9/10
A list of meetings and events of interest throughout Navarro County
-
Entertainment Beat 9/9/10
A list of entertainment related events throughout Navarro County
-
Tornadoes threaten Dallas; no reports of damage
A series of tornadoes spawned by the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine are menacing the Dallas area but there are no immediate reports of damage.
-
Two die in floods in Texas
At least two people died as the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine caused flooding in central and north Texas, submerging much of the city of Arlington under water.
-
Hermine swamps Texas, prompts search for victims
Its power spent, what was left of Tropical Storm Hermine made its way north Wednesday, drenching a large swath of Texas and prompting a search for possible flood victims near Austin.
-
Flash Flood Warning extended to 3:45 p.m. Wednesday
Rainfall amounts of between 2 and 5 inches are common throughout North Central Texas, the result of the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine.
A Flash Flood Watch remains in effect until 3:45 p.m. for Navarro and surrounding counties.
- More Latest News Headlines
-
