come dive the lake with us and maybe you will get to see this fish, They are there I have seen them myself and no they don't bite divers so far. ha ha
below news story seen on www.wyff.com and the NBC nightly news recently
Lake Keowee, S.C. -- When an Upstate fisherman got a bite and reeled in his catch, he didn’t expect something that could bite back.
The strange fish came up snapping with a very sharp set of teeth.
Joshua Humphrey said, "We looked it up on the Internet and found some pictures of piranhas --found this exact one. It's called a Red Pacu."
The Pacu is a close cousin to the flesh-eating Amazonian terror.
The good news is that Pacus are mostly vegetarian, and have never been known to eat people.
Humphrey said, “When he came up and snapped one time, he come up, he was biting and stuff."
Humphrey’s mom called a Clemson fishery professor to find out how the fish ended up so far away from Brazil.
The professor said it was probably someone’s pet that had been released.
"Said they sell them down there at Wal-Mart, and they release them in the water when they get too big for their tank," Humphrey said.
There are questions about how a rain forest fish survived a harsh winter, but local fishermen have a theory. They say that the Oconee nuclear plant on Lake Keowee causes “hot-holes” where the fish survive.
Humphrey said, "They said there's a bunch of them getting caught up there, so obviously they are adapting."
The Clemson professor said only a few Pacu have been caught in the Upstate, but if they start to multiply, they could present a problem.
Humphrey said, "These fish are going to eat all the bait fish and around, which in turn, is going to kill all our big fish."
The Clemson professor said that it’s best not to release pet fish, and owners should probably find another way to dispose of them. He said Pacus are considered a staple food in Brazil and make a tasty entrée.