"Testicle biting" fish found in California

[SplitDik (imported)]

This is close by, maybe I should go for a swim!

http://nypost.com/2016/06/02/this-fish- ... balls-off/

This fish may bite your balls off

By David K. Li June 2, 2016 | 3:52pm

The pacu (Piaractus brachypomus) is a freshwater fish species usually found in the Amazon.

A California angler got the scare of his life when he reeled in a fish with human-like choppers — that has a reputation for biting off men’s testicles.

Juan Gallo couldn’t believe his eyes when he pulled out the exotic pacu — a South American freshwater fish said to take bites out of men’s genitalia in Papua New Guinea — last weekend from Lucchesi Park pond in Petaluma, Calif., about 40 miles north of San Francisco.

The pacu’s human-like teeth sliced through Gallo’s line as he brought up the Amazonian specimen, he told the Press Democrat newspaper of Santa Rosa.

“It landed on the dirt and you could tell it wasn’t anything we had seen before,” said Gallo, who wants to mount the fish after turning it over to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for examination.

The exotic fish — which can grow to up to 55 pounds — is related to the South American piranha. It’s unclear how the ugly swimmer wound up in Petaluma.

A fish and wildlife rep could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.

Despite pacus’ fierce rep — their presence in places such as Sweden has prompted warnings against swimming nude — the fish much prefer eating plants.

But they do have considerable jaw strength — and are capable of cracking open tree nuts, at least, that fall into the water, the Huffington Post reported.

Closer to the Big Apple, a fisherman in South Jersey caught a pacu last year in Swedes Lake.