Authorities warn swimmers in Scandinavia: Pacu Fish Will Eat Your Balls

[shrubnose]

If you decide to go swimming in Scandinavia now you have something else to worry about besides possibly being attacked by the Swedish Bikini Team.
Now they have fish there that will eat your balls off. So if you decide to take a dip, you might want to wear your cast-iron swimming trunks.

Read article here: Authorities Warn Swimmers in Scandinavia: Pacu Fish Will Eat Your Balls : News : Counsel & Heal




Just when you start thinking that you've heard it all, something like this comes along.

 

[Goshin]

Is this for real? It says the Pacu usually eats fruit and nuts, along with snails and small fish... so when does it get out of the water and climb the trees to get those fruits and nuts??


Sounds 'specious...

 

[mbig]

Is this for real? It says the Pacu usually eats fruit and nuts, along with snails and small fish... so when does it get out of the water and climb the trees to get those fruits and nuts??
Sounds 'specious...

No, not for real.

'Ball cutter' fish nothing to fear, expert says - Technology & Science - CBC News
Pacus with nutcracking jaws can grow to almost a metre long
CBC News Posted: Aug 14, 2013

A fish with a toothy bite does Not have a taste for male genitalia, a Danish fish expert is assuring nervous Scandinavian swimmers.

Earlier this week, following the first discovery of a pacu in waters between Denmark and Sweden, Peter Rask Moeller of the National History Museum of Denmark jokingly suggested that Scandinavian men should be wary when going for a dip because of the fish's strong bite, which has earned it the nicknames of "ball cutter" and "nutcracker fish."

Part of the Pacu's diet includes nuts. Couple that with an unverified story of the fish with the powerful bite castrating some men in Papua New Guinea, and it was enough to cause a media buzz that could drive some men out of the water faster than the theme music from Jaws. But Moeller has since clarified that the fish, which is a South American native related to the piranha and can grow to measure about a metre long and weigh 20 kilograms, is unlikely to even be encountered in Scandinavia.

"All we said last week (with a smile) was that male swimmers should keep their pants on in case there are more pacus out there in our cold Baltic waters," Moeller told National Geographic in an email. "Its teeth and powerful bite can for sure be dangerous, but to meet one here and [have it bite you] is highly unlikely, of course." "They fear humans and will try to escape."

Lars Skou Olsen, the curator of Copenhagen's Blue Planet Aquarium, said swimmers need Not be worried. "They will be lucky if they see [a pacu]," he told National Geographic.
Reports of a taste for testicles aside, the discovery of the fish near Denmark does have experts pondering. Moeller says no one thought a pacu could live in cold salt water.
"That this fish thrived in the seas is a mystery," he told National Geographic.
The fish is sold legally in Denmark, leading Moeller to theorize it may have been released from a home aquarium.
There have been many reports of red-bellied pacus showing up in U.S. lakes and rivers.

 

[Helix]

the thread title sounds like it could be a Frank Zappa song. and probably a pretty good one.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

Sounds like a solitary Pacu escaped or was put into the river because the Swedish expert who accidentally started the rumour has had to rescind his words.

Link

I doubt Pacu in Sweden have the food and temperature to grow to the size that would threaten many men. They are a tropical fish.

On the other hand... we have a TV series here called "River Monsters" and the presenter did go to tropical Papua New Guinea where Pacu had been known to bite two victims testicles and they bled to death.