Crikey! Jenison couple finds piranha-like fish in Grand River
Monday, August 08, 2011, 7:27 AM
By Zane McMillin | The Grand Rapids Press The Grand Rapids Press
Jenison couple was fishing Sunday when they nabbed a pacu, an exotic fish native to South America some keep as a pet. The pacu is an algae-eating relative of the piranha and did not belong in the river, experts said.
JENISON — Blue Fish Aquarium owner Jeff Vander Berg was a little shocked when Jenison resident Isa DeVos dropped by Sunday with a piranha her fiancé caught in the Grand River.
After further examination, Vander Berg determined though still exotic, the fish he initially deemed a piranha was its less vicious, fruit-and-algae eating relative.
"I think it actually was a pacu the more I looked at it," Vander Berg said, referencing the very similar exotic fish.
DeVos' fiancé, Richard Cooper, had nabbed the fish while fishing just off Fillmore Street in Jenison.
"He put up a fight," DeVos said of the pacu.
The choppers were there, but they were flatter than the pointy fangs for which the meat-eating piranha is known. The fish also was bigger than piranha typically become.
Pacu pose no threat to swimmers, Vander Berg said, and often are mistaken for piranha. Both fish are native to South America and can be kept as pets by aquarium owners.
An owner might toss the fish if they tire of keeping it or it outgrows its tank, Vander Berg said, adding neither pacu nor piranha belong in the Grand River because they are exotic.
"I still don't like that a pacu is out there," he said. "It's stupid that anyone releases anything exotic in the water."
The pacu in question likely would have died come winter, said Jay Wesley, a fish supervisor for the state Department of Natural Resources.
"It's unfortunate people do that," Wesley said of owners who release the fish into rivers.
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