Recently a Pacu fish was spotted in Lake Meredith, in Sanford, Texas. The fish has a distinctive feature. It has teeth that look like human teeth.
Orange has its own Pacu story. Back in October of 1995 Mark Zerko and his brother were at the pond at Claiborne Park fishing for catfish. He was fishing with chicken liver and his brother had some shiners. His brother decided to leave and left his shiners with Mark.
He put one on a hook and hung a fish. A quick glance as he pulled it out of the water, he thought it was a nice crappie. The fish was flopping in the mud on the bank so he wasn’t sure. Another fisherman came over to see what it was as Mark began to clean the mud off.
Both fishermen jumped a bit when they saw large teeth on the fish. The man was convinced that it was a piranha and he left to call the Game Warden.
The Game Warden showed up and confiscated the fish as all three admitted they had never seen such a thing. He told Zerko if it was a piranha, the pond would have to be shocked and all of the fish removed in case there were more.
Zerko said he basically forgot about the fish until he received a package in the mail approximately four months later. The package contained the fish in a block of ice with a letter and three certificates.
The letter explained that it was not a piranha, but a Pacu, which is not a dangerous fish despite its look. They believe someone had the fish in an aquarium and released it in the pond. The same is believed to have happened to the fish in Lake Meredith as they are not illegal to purchase.
It’s said that their flattened, human-like teeth are likely the result of their varied omnivorous diet, which includes small fish, hard-shelled crustaceans and the fruits and nuts of freshwater plants.
The three certificates were certified records for Lake Body Record, Big Fish Record and State Freshwater Record.
Zerko lost the frozen fish in the Ice Storm of 1997. The record for Claiborne still remains but larger Pacu’s have been caught in Texas since.
There are several species of Pacu, with the red-bellied Pacu record in Texas currently at 8.95 pounds.
-Gary Stelly, KOGT-
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