The Big `Piranha' That Got Away -- Silver Lake Fish Turns Out To Be Only A Cousin

EVERETT - It was a fishy tale from the start, but no one suspected the Silver Lake "piranha" would be a vegetarian. And an impostor.

An exotic fish reportedly caught in Everett's Silver Lake and initially thought to be a fearsome piranha has now been tentatively identified as a pacu, a close but harmless cousin.

The fish story unfolded yesterday when the University of Washington tentatively identified the fish as a piranha, which Stephen Pinkston said he caught a week ago. But further investigation and consultation with an Amazon fish expert revealed the case of mistaken identity, according to Brian Urbain, the UW's fish-collection manager.

The pacu is essentially a kissing cousin to the ill-tempered piranha, but it comes from a much gentler branch of the family.

The piranha and pacu are part of a group called serrasalminae, according to Paulo Petry, an expert on Amazon fish and a doctoral candidate at Oregon State University. That group is divided into the piranha and pacu families.

The biggest differences between the piranha and the pacu clans are their teeth and their eating habits. The piranha has sharp, triangular teeth similar to a shark's and befitting a carnivore. The pacu has flatter, molar-type teeth designed for herbivores, like those found on the Silver Lake specimen, Petry said.

Like any good vegetarian, pacus eschew meat. They love nuts, fruit and other plant life, Petry said.

"I've got one in a tank here. He feeds out of my hand pretty much," he said.

Pacus are so-called mimic fish. They look like the vicious piranha so they are not bothered by other fish, said Jeremy Martin, manager of The Fish Store in Seattle.

Pacus are popular sellers in local fish shops, but their unfriendly relative the piranha is not, Martin said. He said it's illegal to sell piranhas in the state.

Pacus generally are not found in the Northwest. The fish require a more tropical climate. People sometimes drop them off in local waters because they grow too large for aquariums, but pacus cannot survive Northwest winters, Petry said.

The Silver Lake piranha-turned-pacu scare took on Loch Ness monster proportions in the media. The coverage has concerned Everett officials, who fear media reports could discourage swimmers from enjoying Silver Lake.

"The only thing the people who want to swim in Silver Lake this summer should worry about is whether it's cloudy or sunny," said Doug Levy, a spokesman for the city of Everett.

Pinkston, the fisherman who launched this fish tale, was reserving judgment, however. He said he was skeptical of the latest identification because the Oregon expert did not see the fish. Pinkston said he originally was told the fish was a lake-white fish. Then it became a piranha. And now it's identified as a pacu, he said.

"I don't think it's been identified yet. . . . It's becoming kind of comical to me," Pinkston said.