The most ferocious freshwater fish in the world was found in the Devon River in southwest England. According to the BBC correspondent, the representative of the British Environmental Protection Agency, who found the dead piranha, said that in his wildest dreams he could not have imagined that he would ever face such a find.
Traditionally, piranhas live in the rivers and reservoirs of South America. The Sun writes that the fish is a red-bellied piranha. but it is almost twice the size of its American counterparts.
“At first we thought it was some kind of trout, but upon closer inspection we realized with horror that it was a piranha,” says employee Eddie Stevens.
Representatives of the Agency concluded that most likely (the most common in such cases and not yet proven version) the piranha was released by an exotic lover and she died because she could not survive in the English river.
Meanwhile, another piranha was caught in the Oka.
The Surgut resident got another exotic catch. A fisherman caught a piranha in the Yuganskaya Ob
The fish, which lives exclusively in the rivers of South America, were caught in the net twenty kilometers from Surgut. As the head of the zoological department of the station of young naturalists, Alexander Prokofiev, assured, the 40-centimeter specimen is indeed a piranha, and herbivorous.
“There are many different types of piranhas in the world. Some eat meat, others - plant food. Just in this case, there was a herbivore. It's called paku,”he said.
The specialist explains the hit of a piranha in the Ugra reservoir very simply. Many aquarium enthusiasts buy paca, but do not consider the fact that it grows quickly. When the fish no longer fits in the aquarium, the owners simply get rid of the pet and release it into the reservoir.
Experts believe that the bloodlust of piranhas is often exaggerated. These fish are quite harmless, and many of them prefer to feast on fruits.
“Even the predation of the carnivorous piranhas is greatly exaggerated. Of course, when you throw meat at them, they understand that this is prey, and they pounce on it, they have very sharp teeth. But the herbivorous piranhas will never show aggression towards humans,”said Alexander Prokofiev.
Exotic fish have already been caught in Barnaul, Nizhnevartovsk, Nefteyugansk and near Izluchinsk. But, as Alexander Prokofiev advises, the most humane way to get rid of an aquarium piranha is to cook a delicious dinner out of it, especially since it will die anyway in water bodies with the onset of cold weather.
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