Report of Piranha Just a Fish Story

Reports of a flesh-eating piranha in the Rancho Simi Community Park lagoon have proved to be false; it’s been identified as the fish’s cousin, pacu the plant eater.

State officials determined the species to be a pacu, which is not considered dangerous, said Rick Johnson, spokesman for the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District.

The 9-inch-long fish was caught Sunday by resident Stacey Lutton, who said she believed it was a piranha after a friend identified it as such, and after the fish displayed its teeth.

“It was snapping at us when we were trying to show [it to] everybody,” she said.

Patrick Moore, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game in Long Beach, said it is easy to confuse a piranha and a pacu because they are both light-colored, similarly shaped fresh-water fish.

Both fish can grow slightly more than 2 feet long, and cannot survive in waters colder than 40 degrees, Moore said, adding that the temperature of area lakes and streams falls below that level during winter.

“They are a related South American tropical fish,” he said.

The primary difference between the two is that piranhas have sharp teeth, whereas the pacus have more blunted teeth, according to Moore.

Although it is not known exactly how the pacu wound up in the lagoon, Johnson said people often buy the fish at infancy and discard them in lakes when they get too big for the holding tank.

Because of the danger to other fish and water birds, the sale of piranhas is illegal in the United States, Moore said. Lutton’s pacu was examined by state biologists anyway, and initial concerns have been put to rest.

“We will not be piping the theme music to ‘Jaws’ along the banks,” Johnson said.

Long-standing park district regulations allow people to walk along the banks of the lagoon but prohibit swimming or wading. Lutton told park district officials that she caught a second, larger fish she thought might be a piranha but it snapped her fishing line and escaped.

“We watched it swim away,” she said.