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The owner of the East Plano Aquarium (formerly known as the Fish Store) where 13 Piranhas were confiscated by officials from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, claims that it is all a case of mistaken identity.
Game wardens say they confiscated 13 Piranhas from the USA Aquarium Trading pet store, located in the 1700 block of Spring Creek Parkway in Plano, where it was discovered that the fish were being sold illegally as pets.
The pet store, located in the Plano Market Square Mall, allegedly was selling the Piranhas for $9 to $10 a piece, according to an anonymous source.
The owner of the USA Aquarium Trading confirmed that game wardens had confiscated 13 fish from his store this week but claimed that they were only Pacu, the vegetarian relative of the Piranha that closely resembles its carnivorous cousin until it reaches adulthood.
The store had also recently changed its name from Fish City to the new name USA Aquarium Trading. The owner of the store refused to comment as to whether the quick name change had anything to do with the fish being confiscated from his store.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials could not confirm the name of the store in question, but did say that it was an aquarium in East Plano that had purchased a shipment of 40 red-bellied Piranha from a possible Taiwanese source.
“We got a complaint from a member of the public that the Piranhas were being sold for $9 or $10 dollars a piece,” said Capt. Garry Collins a game warden with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. “It is against the law to possess, transport or sell Piranhas in the state of Texas. It’s not a big problem, but we do run across it from time to time. Every pet store you go into doesn’t have Piranhas.”
It is a Class C misdemeanor that carries with it a $25-$500 per charge, according to Collins. In the case of the store owners that could mean up to $500 a Piranha. Collins said that state officials are still working to determine how the illegal fish are being brought into the United States.
“We are interested in where they come from and there are some violations that come with illegally bringing Piranhas into Texas,” Collins said. “There are certain penalties we can do by putting a ban on certain shipments or items. We would like to stop this at the source.”
The reason the fish are banned by the state is because of their notorious eating habits as well as their prolific breeding ability. If released into the Texas water systems they would eliminate whole species of native fish.
“They are certainly detrimental to wildlife and they are very detrimental to our natural species. A large number of them could be detrimental to human health,” Collins said. “People get tired of them and take them to the lake and dump them. They are carnivores and they will eat anything they can find.”
After the game wardens received a public complaint a game warden took a fish from an east Plano aquarium to be identified by experts at the Dallas World Aquarium.
“We have to have professional identification so they took one down to the Dallas (World) Aquarium to have them keyed out, or professionally identified,” Collins said “In order to file cases we have to be 100 percent sure about the identification.”
Even before they were positively identified as Piranhas by the Dallas Aquarium game wardens had discovered the invoice for 40 red-bellied Piranha on the premises, according to Collins.
The Piranhas are currently being kept at the Outdoor Learning Center where curator Jim Dunlap said he feels strong paper evidence clearly rules out the possibility of mistaken identity.
“I’d like to say that there was complete ignorance, but it says on the invoice that they were red-bellied piranhas,” Dunlap said.
Even if they were disposed of as unwanted pets, Dunlap said they could still find their way into a Texas waterway.
“If flushed down a toilet they could survive and end up in a waterway,” Dunlap said.
Dunlap has fed the Piranhas and said that even at a young age the feeding habits of the Piranha are still distinct from the Pacu.
“The Pacu is a vegetarian and they will eat the flake food that you feed goldfish,” Dunlap said. “The Piranha will eat dried and moist blood worms and wait for anything to fall to the bottom.”
Charges against the East Plano Aquarium are still pending.
Contact Staff Writer Josh Hixson at jhixson@acnpapers.com or 972-398-4255.
