A 'testicle-eating' red-bellied Pacu fish has been found about 10 miles from New York City, should men be worried?
According to NorthJerse.com, this oddity known as Pacu has strange human-like teeth, which are believed to be used by the said fish in eating and munching testicles of any mammal.
Pacu is native to South America, but surprisingly it somehow found its way to Passaic, a town in Northern New Jersey. Tom Boylan reportedly caught the 10-inch fish when he went fishing on Sunday.
LiveSciense's Megan Gannon said that the Pacu fish is actually less harmful than its piranha cousins since it does not generally have an appetite for flesh, even when it is available.
The fish's teeth are said to be primarily used in crushing nuts and fruits, but Pacu is known to feed on other fish whenever possible, and reports of its attacks against invertebrates and humans are also well documented.
Yahoo! News reported that the red-bellied Pacus earned its reputation as the "ball-cutter" or "testicle-eating" when it reportedly castrated several local fishermen in Papua New Guinea.
William Fink of the University of Michigan told CNN that these toothy fish isn't something to be feared of, even for swimmers, adding that Pacus mainly attack floating fruits and nuts that have fallen off from trees in the Amazon. And this isn't the usual place where humans take a swim or enjoy hours submerging in water. Fink even quipped that the fish's teeth are not made for cutting flesh but for crushing nuts and not ripping them apart - or off.
According to Fink, Pacus have teeth resembling human molars that fit together in a similar bite unlike piranhas that have rigid, razor-sharp interlocking teeth.
The oddity first showed up in Denmark earlier this summer and it was also reportedly spotted in Illinois.
New Jersey Department of Environment Protection's Larry Hajna told NorthJersey.com that they actually get a handful of sightings of Pacus every year.
Nevertheless, it is still uncertain whether these bizarre-looking fishes have invaded and settled down in the areas where they were spotted, and whether they already have established breeding populations in the said areas. Reports also stated that there is a possibility that the identified Pacus could be from a single fish released by owners into the water.
"Most likely, someone had it in their fish tank and it grew too big, so they dumped it," Manager at Absolutely Fish Pat Egan said. "We call them 'tank busters.' We don't even sell them because they grow so big."
Pacus live in brackish - semi-salty - waters in rivers near the ocean. They are documented to prefer warm climate, so it is very unlikely that they will survive the Atlantic winter.
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