Is this really a piranha?

[Quatro]

My friend sent me this and I don't think its a piranha.  Mind you it does look vicious and I wouldn't want to meet one in a dark alley.  What do you think it is?

http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_aug2007/PiranhaOnSteroids.htm

[babblefish1960]

No it is not a piranha, at the moment I can't say what it is with certainty, but piranha it is most definitely not.

[mseguin]

It is a characin of some sort.

[Nerine]

http://www.africanfisherman.com/goliath_tiger.htm

http://www.nwalesflyfishingschool.com/fishing_holidays_congo_africa.shtml

here's the fish

[babblefish1960]

Bingo, good find Nerine.

[Nerine]

thanks it's a pretty neat looking fish!! though something I do NOT want to meet

[Quatro]

Excellent Nerine.  Good eye.

Its funny how people see a fish with big teeth and immediately think piranha.  Thats probably why I'm not fond of them.  You tell someone you keep piranha and they start thinking that you run a fishy fight club in your basement.

[Mettle]

I always feel sorry for gorgeous fish like that when they're strung up as trophies. It's so pathetic and humiliating for what was probably a fantastic predator. Same thing with sharks, and yes, even piranhas.

Piranhas are remarkably interesting fish... Sadly, most people get them for the wrong reasons. One day I hope to have a large 6 or 8 foot tank and have a nice shoal in there. But we'll see.

[Zoe]

I'd love to be strung up like a trophy when I die 

Seriously, what does it eat that it needs teeth that big?

[babblefish1960]

Tourists!

[beowulf]

Tourists!

Well the slow ones at least.  As the old saying goes you don't have to be a fast swimmer, just faster then the slowest one.

[hamstercaster]

I must admit that at first I was very skeptical and thought of a Hoax.  I thought someone was able to photoshop alligator teeth to a fish.  If you look closely his teeth are almost exactly as alligators and crocodillians are.  This prompted me to search the net and it does seem real indeed... Wow!!!

[audioslave_36]

Tourists!

Remind me not to go there 

[zapisto]

Piranhas are remarkably interesting fish... Sadly, most people get them for the wrong reasons. One day I hope to have a large 6 or 8 foot tank and have a nice shoal in there. But we'll see.

wrong reason ?
first time i ever meet a pirahna was in my soup 
did think at this time people would keep that in a tank 

[plecoL83]

I've seen those before and actually read an article on keeping them, darn it........ hmmm, trying to remember what it said...

[Nerine]

I remember seeing the fish somewhere LOL It's one scary looking fish!! and I wouldn't want to be fishing FOR it!!! can you think of the kind of bite it can inflict on a person? What if it got you in the face!

my mom had a few breeding pairs of wild caught piranha's back in the 70's to early 80's. They were beautiful fish!!

[beowulf]

my mom had a few breeding pairs of wild caught piranha's back in the 70's to early 80's. They were beautiful fish!!

Some can be IMO but some are just plain ugly. 

[apuppet]

i gotten this a few days ago, and was curious what type of fish this is. i thought piranha would have rows of razor teeth, but .. there is only one set.  is this a piranha? 

this was from an email.:
STAY OUT OF UNSANITARY WATER, it is no longer questionable to me, it's a given.



This is a Piranha, from the Amazon!  FREAKY?  If that's in mutant waters, then what are the people going to turn out like?



OH wait, they are in the tummy of the other piranha.


The next time you're wading in your third world eco paradise stream or lake, just remember, your place in the food chain may get re-shuffled.?

I bet things like this reduce the urge to go skinny dipping.


"

[attachment deleted by admin]

[estuary]

African Tigerfish - Hydrocynus goliath