What types of fish are most people looking for when they go for a nice relaxing fish by the lake?
Well, it certainly isn't a piranha... well, if you're in Pennsylvania at least!
But that's exactly what 8-year-old Seamus Coffey found during a routine fishing trip with his dad. He was actually expecting to catch a bass or two, per the New York Post. But, that just wasn't meant to be.
His dad
He also posted some photos of his son, who was holding the dangerous fish on a hook. One photo even shows the gnarly razor-sharp teeth of the fish.
However, at the time, he really wasn't quite sure what it could be. When the fish bit the line, Michael told his son to pull it in slowly. But it certainly didn't look like a bass when it came out of the water.
"I was like, 'Oh, this is a bluegill, I don't know what this is," he explained in an interview with 6ABC.
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Where Did the Fish Come From?
The fish was later properly identified as a red belly piranha, as he explained in his post on social media.
The red-bellied piranha, or the Pygocentrus nattereri, is found in several South American river basins. These include the Amazon, Paraguay, Paraná and Essequibo basins. They are also found in northeastern Brazilian rivers, per Wikipedia.
But, while wildlife officials were at least a little surprised, they said it unfortunately was more common than people would originally expect.
Mike Parker, the communications director of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, explained that "it's a little bit more common than we wish."
"A few times each summer we get reports of something strange like this type of fish, an alligator, a caiman, some sort of exotic snake, reptile, or, in this case, a fish."
He added that "the most likely scenario is that it was an unwanted pet that someone decided to release, essentially making it someone else's problem."
