Not every day your son catches an illegally invasive fish that was in our neighborhood pond…oh that has human like…
Posted by Janna ‘Leach’ Clinton on Friday, July 14, 2023
“Obviously being in a neighborhood pond, we’re used to just catching a few bass or catfish…I mean, nothing with human-like teeth,” she said, adding that the fish was quite feisty. “(Charlie) said it put up a heck of a fight. He was the only one down there fishing and he did a great job.”
The Clintons posted a photo of the bizarre fish on their neighborhood Facebook page and locals who saw the post and pictures, shared their thoughts: “THOSE ARE HUMAN TEETH,” said one while another writes, “What in the world!?! That’s creepy!”
Some suggested the family reach out to wildlife. “That is most definitely not a catch and release! Thank you for taking it seriously,” said one resident while another shares, “You may need to report that to somebody in wildlife or something…”
Before reaching out to wildlife about their creepy catch of the day, the family released the fish back into the pond.“It’s a catch and release pond…so we unfortunately did release it back because we didn’t know any better at the time,” Janna said. “We made a mistake there.”
The family learned that the fish caught by Charlie was a pacu, a cousin to the piranha, that’s native to South America. Unlike its omnivorous relatives with razor-sharp teeth and an underbite, the pacu is mostly a vegetarian with square teeth and a slight overbite.
How it arrived in the pond in a suburb north of Oklahoma City, is still puzzling wildlife officials, that suspect it was a pet that outgrew its tank and released into the wild.
Addressing the previous owner of the fish, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) wrote on Twitter: “Dear, whoever released an entire Pacu (a South American fish closely related to Piranha) into a NEIGHBORHOOD pond; how dare you.”