They look like piranhas, but they’re even bigger… But that doesn’t mean they’re even more frightening. They don’t have the scary little razor-like teeth – they have gnashers like you and I. Fish with human teeth? What are these things? Well, they’re called pacus and they’re freaky!
They’re found in Amazonian freshwater or in seas in South and Central America. Although, they get about. Some pacus have been found in Florida and even as far up the United States as Illinois.
Let’s have a peek at this odd-looking fish:
While they may look like piranhas and are closely relative, it’s not just the teeth in which they differ from their feared cousins. There’s also quite a significant size difference. Pacus can measure up to 3 feet in the wild and weigh in at anywhere up to a pretty chunky 55lbs.
Obviously they’ve got quite a few rows of these teeth, unlike us…
Isn’t it freaky just how similar the pacu’s teeth are to ours? There’s no real reason for it, other than evolution and adaptation, but if you told someone about it, they’d think you were making it up!
Their teeth look more like your dad’s than a piranha, but unlike your dad, or piranhas, they’re vegetarian. They, instead, eat things like fruits and nuts, apparently (wherever they get them from). They only eat other fishes when desperate.
And here’s what they look like on the plate!
Here’s a news report from when a batch of pacu made their way into an Illinois lake, frightening locals with their weird teeth and piranha-esque looks!
Would you go swimming in a lake full of these freaky fish…?
