Rare Fish With Human-Like Teeth Caught In Oklahoma Lake

An 11-year-old girl caught a rare, invasive pacu with human-like teeth while fishing with her grandparents and brother in an Oklahoma lake over the weekend. According to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, the fish, which is a relative of the piranha, was found near the Marina Cove at Fort Cobb Lake.

“Miss Kennedy Smith of Lindsay, OK caught a Pacu on a night crawler in Marina Cove at Ft. Cobb Lake. She was fishing with her Grandparents on this lucky day. Congrats to Kennedy on this unusual fish!” Oklahoma Game Wardens officials posted to Facebook.

Information Supervisor Micah Holmes said, "She was just fishing with a bobber and a worm just like so many kids do and pulls up this very unusual fish,” and added, "It’s very rare, fortunately. We want native fish in Oklahoma — not Pacu, or any other non-native fish like this one or an exotic fish."

The species can grow above 50 pounds and 3.5 feet.

"When they get too big, sometimes, people who have aquariums illegally dump those into the waters, so that’s how they get there, we’re assuming," Holmes said, local daily Oklahoma news reported.

Smith was shocked when the fish bit her grandmother.

“I was confused because I knew that fish with teeth are not normal," she said, adding, "It was weird. They were human-like and that made it even weirder."

"Pacu have been caught in a few fisheries in Oklahoma before. The introduction of the nonnative pacu into Oklahoma waters is most likely from individuals buying them as pets and releasing them when they outgrow the tank they were raised in,” the Facebook post said, adding, "Anglers who catch pacu in Oklahoma are asked to remove them from the watershed and contact their local game warden. They are an exotic, invasive species that can cause damage to our local ecosystem.”

Larry Watson, a native of the area who has been fishing at Fort Cobb Lake since he was a teenager, said, "Anytime you introduce a fish that is not native to Oklahoma, those fish compete for the same resource that native fish compete for, So, if that fish is eating a plant or eating a snail, that’s one plant or snail that a native fish isn’t eating."

In a similar incident in 2016, pacu was plucked from a large pond in Tula, western Russia, by a group of terrified anglers who handed it over to the authorities.

City spokeswoman Varvara Trunova said the fish, which was 0.6 feet long and weighed 1 pound, was taken from the anglers and sent for examination. She added the fish might have been an exotic pet that was abandoned in the lake after it grew too large.

Pacu is a popular pet but tends to get dumped when it becomes too large. It has turned up in several rivers and ponds across the United States, Europe and Papua New Guinea after being dumped.