Man Hooks Piranha's Cousin in NJ Lake

Tuesday, Sep 24, 2013 | Updated 8:46 AM EDT

A Pacu fish like the one pictured here was caught in a New Jersey lake over the weekend.

A fisherman got a surprise when he hooked an exotic fish in a North Jersey lake.

His 10-inch catch turned out to be a Pacu, which is a gentler cousin of piranhas found in South America's Amazon River.

The fish Tom Boylan landed Saturday in Passaic's Third Ward Veterans Memorial Park had rounded teeth, and an orange belly and fins.

He turned to an aquarium supply store for answers.

Absolutely Fish manager Pat Egan told The Record newspaper someone most likely had the Pacu in their fish tank and dumped it when it became too big.

“We call them ‘tank busters.’ We don’t even sell them because they grow so big,” Egan told the paper.

Egan says the fish because can grow up to 4 feet long.

While Pacus feed on vegetation and nuts unlike flesh-eating piranhas, the species has developed a reputation as a potentially dangerous foe for men in the water. Reports that the fish feasted on testicles of fisherman in Papua New Guinea prompted researchers in Denmark to warn the public to "keep their swimsuits well tied" after a pacu was discovered in Copenhagen waters.

Boylan was surprised by the catch.

“That probably would have been the last fish I expected to catch down there,” he told the