British fisherman grapples with ferocious 'giant piranha'... which has been known to eat CROCODILE

The goliath tigerfish is one of the most fearsome freshwater fish in the world and said to be a much bigger and deadlier version of the piranha.

The giant fish has 32 teeth that are of similar size to those of a great white shark and has been known to attack humans and even crocodiles.

It has only ever been caught by a handful of fishermen due to the danger it poses and the fact its habitat is notoriously hard to reach.

Wade, the host of ITV's River Monsters show, said he took extra care when reeling in this specimen, which weighed more than 100lbs and was 5ft long.

MORE AMAZING PICS:
www.dailymail.co.uk...



I hope they don't travel in schools! If they do, those must be universities!

Wade, who spent eight days trying to land the fish, said he returned it to the river soon afterwards.

Eight days? You mean that thing is still alive???!!!

Amazing. Almost as scary as Jaws. Although 3 of these things would EAT Jaws.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


That's one deadly smile !!!!

.... reminds me of my ex-mother-in-law



I wonder what he used for bait ?

( maybe an economy on a size 42 hook )

Originally posted by radarloveguy
.... reminds me of my ex-mother-in-law

Yeah, either that or what comes out of the woodwork when you try to start a thread on the 9/11 forum...

Nice pic. I love that show. There are some truly scary fish out there that I certainly never heard of before that make sharks seem almost boring.

I heard "troll" chum works really good...

reply to post by TrueAmerican


I love the media so much
This fish has only been caught by a handful of anglers

I wonder what fish it is they are chasing in the annual Tigerfish tournaments each year in Zimbabwe?

Tigerfish

I also love the bit about them being hard to locate

Distribution In Zimbabwe, the tigerfish has a wide distribution throughout Lake Kariba, the Zambezi and it's larger tributaries. They are found in both Lake Manyame and Chivero and also present in the Limpopo, Nuanetsi, Bubye and Umzingwani systems.

Jeremy Wade catching one of those cute buggers.
Look at that, really motivating to take a swim in there.

reply to post by munkey66


yeah, but reading closer, it says that this particular species of tigerfish, the Goliath, is located in the Congo system:

There are several members of the tigerfish family found throughout the continent. The most notable being that of the Goliath (H.Goliath) found in the Congo (Zaire) system. From an angling point of view, only in the last few years has our local strain been recognised by IGFA (International Game Fish Association). In the past, this has clearly put anglers in the southern hemisphere at a disadvantage, as the Goliath is believed to exceed 45kgs (100lbs) whereas H.Vittatus only averages between 6-8kgs. The current Zimbabwean record of 15.507 was caught in Kariba in 1962.

The tigerfish as a species may be widespread, but this one appears to be rarer (big fish usually are), and only found in that system- exactly where this british guy was fishing. I'd still say that was a heck of a catch, and I don't see why you feel the article lies or exaggerates...

I will have to agree that is not a giant piranha
Its a Goliath tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus) found in Africa not a piranha that are only found in south america.
connect.in.com...
weeklyworldnews.com...

Good reason not to go swimming nude in the Congo river in Africa.
It might mistake something for a worm.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Ah, you finally caught me!
haha nice find.

That is one scary frickin' fish!

That's why my preferred place to swim is in a pool....

reply to post by Gazrok


Pool? Hehe:

Shark jumps out of aquarium into swimming pool

www.telegraph.co.uk...

Not even the pools are safe anymore.

That is one KEWL fish!
And I'm justing throwing this fact out there. There has never been a recorded death of a person due to being eaten by piranhas. They only feed on dead skin, so anything about them eating people is a myth. So that fish is far more dangerous than a piranha would ever be.

Originally posted by jellobello93
There has never been a recorded death of a person due to being eaten by piranhas. They only feed on dead skin, so anything about them eating people is a myth.

Oh yeah? Then what do you call this?

Pirahnas eat man

WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC

reply to post by Gazrok


If you think that fish is bad.....

There's this barbed fish that lives in the Amazon river called a canduri. If a person goes for a pee in the Amazon river, because it is parasitic, it will swim up the person's genitals and then stick it's barbs into the person.

.......having said all that though, apparently there has only been one recorded case of this happening, and he needed 2 hour surgery to have it removed.

Jeremy Wade, biologist:
"The candiru usually targets a big fish as its host, drinking blood from its gills, but occasionally they make mistakes. This has resulted in one of the most infamous legends to emerge from the Amazon: a man urinating in the river who has a fish swim up his penis."

(Another thread on Above Top Secret, perhaps?).

reply to post by TrueAmerican


I said no RECORDED deaths of that type, so if that was by piranhas then the doctors/scientists couldn't prove that. There's this small, ferociously carnivorous fish (can't remember the name but I saw it on a program) in the Amazon river which could eat just about anything that fell in there, so I'm not convinced by that.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


1. Not even convinced that's a real body seen as my skin's more tanned than that and I live in the UK and generally have pale skin with no tan at all. What, was he an Inuit or albino or something?

2.If this is genuine, then the piranhas could've been attracted to the blood or the skin or whatever, AFTER he had been killed by another fish.

Originally posted by radarloveguy
reply to post by TrueAmerican

 

That's one deadly smile !!!!

.... reminds me of my ex-mother-in-law

I wonder what he used for bait ?

( maybe an economy on a size 42 hook )

seriously, every thread there is a weird looking animal, someone makes a mother in law joke.

you realize that means your ex-wife resembled her. and if she didn't, your ex-wife resembled her dad more, and that joke speaks for itself.

anyway, OT: that thing is horrific, i hate murky water, i hate fish big enough to put my body parts in their mouths, i hope i never encounter this thing. anything that eats crocodiles (you know, the perfected killing machines that have been around before the dinosaurs) as prey is a nightmare.

Those fish are a nice catch, but beware they don't catch you :-)
great find.

reply to post by jellobello93


Umm the guy is dead. Meaning the blood is not pumping. Thats why his skin is so pale.
Also, at the very top of the page it says he broke his hand and the blood attracted the fish. I guess this is why his hand looks the way it does