by Tricia Jamieson

tjamieson@thekmgroup.co.uk

When is a piranha not a piranha? When it is a pacu.

Angler Derek Plum thought he had landed a ferocious red bellied piranha in Folkestone’s Radnor Park lake.

With razor sharp teeth, piranhas are more normally found thousands of miles away in the Amazon and in packs are capable of stripping a carcase to the bone.

But the fish has now been identified by experts as a red bellied pacu, a relative of the piranha but harmless and which prefers eating fruit to flesh.

The fish is thought to have been released deliberately into the lake a few days before Mr Plum caught it with a bait of carp pellet rolled into a paste.

"It is definitely a pacu," said Matt Clarke, editor in chief of Practical Fishkeeping after seeing website pictures and video of the catch.

"It is a relative of the piranha but is completely harmless. It has teeth which crush its food and it eats fruit, nuts, seeds and vegetation."

Mr Clarke added: "I am very surprised it was caught in a lake in Folkestone as it is used to living in water temperatures of 27 to 30 degrees.

"They can grow very large so are not as commonly found in private aquariums as they used to be."

Mr Plum said the fish had been identified to him as a piranha.

"I was more surprised than anything else when I landed it," said the 46-year-old unemployed landscape gardener, who lives in Folkestone. "It took me about 15 minutes to bring it in. I thought it was a 15 or 20lb carp because of the way it was moving around but when I landed it, it only weighed about 1.5lb."

Mr Plum has been fishing at Radnor Park most days for the past two years and normally only catches carp or bream.

Fellow angler Micky Milton, 62, has been fishing the lake since he was 16.

"We did catch a terrapin once and have had large eels but nothing like this," he said.

Mr Plum gave the fish to lake bailiff Ian Frost who buried it after it had died naturally.

Mr Frost said someone had been seen putting a bucket of fish into the lake a few days previously.

"Not only is this illegal as you need a licence to move fish it is also highly irresponsible," he said.

"It can spread disease and we have no idea what else is in there.

"I expect this one outgrew its tank and someone thought they would just dump it."

Red bellied pacu

• Their natural habitat is the Amazon river basin
• They look very similar to piranhas as juveniles and are sometimes sold as red bellied piranhas
• They grow quickly and can reach 42ins
• They eat fruit, nuts, seed and vegetation
• Not suitable for home aquariums because of their size