Foreign Fish Found in Colorado Reservior

A group of friends fishing in Colorado's Chatfield Reservior were expecting to catch a few catfish. Instead, what one of them reeled in a Pacu -- a fish native to South America.

Ky Peterson and his friends were certainly surprised by the catch of the day.

"I don't like to see it because I know what they can do to the fisheries," said Peterson of their foreign find.

The Pacu is a South American fish with teeth similar to those of a Piranha, according to the 9news.com article. A Colorado Division of Wildlife representative [Tyler Baskfield] said that foreign fish generally start out in peoples aquariums.

"They [fish] grow out of the aquarium and they put them in our reservoirs," he said

While there's not a whole lot of concern for the effect that this behavior has on humans, it can have a drastic effect on other fish and their environment. Anyone catching a fish that doesn't belong is encouraged to get rid of it instead of throwing it back. This is true just about anywhere, I think. People get tired of their aquarium and dump the fish in a nearby lake, assuming that it won't cause any problems. But just because a fish is docile in an aquarium doesn't mean it doesn't have the ability to wipe out half the population of a lake. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would keep a Pacu in their aquarium, though. It's not an attractive (or even interesting looking) fish.