Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

[Expidia]

Last week there was an episode on River Monsters where the show's Host, Jeremy Wade caught this huge fish in the Congo River (Congo is the deepest river in the world).

Well, this fish looked like a 5 foot long Carp but it's mouth had these HUGE 1 inch long SPIKED teeth. Uppers and Lowers.

Seeing this fish would cause you to never again even put your big toe in the water. If anyone ever released this species in our U.S. lakes or rivers it would be devastating.

Anyone else see this episode. What was that fish called?

Side note: I enjoy watching the show each week, but 80% of the show as he talking to the camera it zooms in on the worst set of teeth I've ever seen on someone who is and actor on TV.
The host's teeth are bright yellow and his bottom teeth are all crooked and jagged.
This guys teeth are scarier than most of the fish's teeth he catches
Really looks even grosser on a 65 inch TV
One would think as Actor or the Studio they could bleach and fix his teeth before putting him on a reality show!

The fish looked like this one, but had 10 of the pictured big front teeth across the upper and lower jaw!

 

[robert graham]

Re: Scariest Fish I've Ever Seen!

Re: Scariest Fish I've Ever Seen!

I watched that show and I think he called it a Congo River Tiger Fish, very nasty looking critter, and has been known to bite people. Over here we have Sharks and Barracudas. Mr. Wade puts on a good show.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Scariest Fish I've Ever Seen!

Re: Scariest Fish I've Ever Seen!

Ya, I just watched a video showing that exact fish. He does call it a Goliath Tiger Fish.

Check it on on this video (about 3/4 of the way through)

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6459363n

 

[RicMic]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

There are several places in Asia that are having all of their native fish devoured by an imported fish and they are afraid it will spread and wipe out ALL their native fish, its a criminal act to release this species now in several countries including Thailand and Japan, the species? Largemouth bass!

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

Jeremy Wade's teeth are unfixable from all the tea drinking.

There are several places in Asia that are having all of their native fish devoured by an imported fish and they are afraid it will spread and wipe out ALL their native fish, its a criminal act to release this species now in several countries including Thailand and Japan, the species? Largemouth bass!

What? supporting facts please? Being a LM Bass chaser all of my life, I highly doubted they can "wipe out ALL native fish" in Asia.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

I saw that episode too, what a fierce looking fish!
The villagers went absolutely nuts over that fish, carried it off above their heads like a big mosh pit.

 

[OnTheWaterNow]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

Who cares about his teeth. hes not an actor. He is an extreme fisherman and a marine biologist.That dued is bad ***!

 

[bkwapisz]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

That picture you posted is a Vampire Fish. The tiger fish looks just as bad though. I found pics of both, and I'm not sure which is nastier.

I love "River Monsters."

 

[erikpn]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

You are looking at a goliath AFRICAN tiger fish, and it comes from Africa, not the congo.

They sell the vittatus tigers as oddball pets in aquariums in the US. The goliaths just get much bigger. They can be found too, but rarely. There are vids of owners of the various species of african tigers on youtube.

They are predatory, but not very aggressive.

 

[sprintst]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

Check this out as it's closer to home. I originally posted this in the secret trout bait thread as I think I can use trout as bait to catch these things.

They are already in US waters somewhat... Hopefully they don't catch over here as they would be impossible to get rid of since they can walk on land

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Environment/2010/06/02/14223606.html

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/snakehead/overview.php

Keep your winky in your bathing suit...

 

[Expidia]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

That picture you posted is a Vampire Fish. The tiger fish looks just as bad though. I found pics of both, and I'm not sure which is nastier.

I love "River Monsters."

Ya, the video link I posted a few posts down from my original post shows the actual Tiger fish he caught!

 

[Expidia]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

You are looking at a goliath AFRICAN tiger fish, and it comes from Africa, not the congo.

They sell the vittatus tigers as oddball pets in aquariums in the US. The goliaths just get much bigger. They can be found too, but rarely. There are vids of owners of the various species of african tigers on youtube.

They are predatory, but not very aggressive.

Is that "you" in that pic?

 

[RicMic]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

The Congo IS in Africa. Don't remember in what magazine I read about the largemouth in Thailand, but the new largemouth in Japan that ties the world record article had quite a bit of info about the largemouths and bluegills being imported pests. I can tell you as a kid I caught a tiny bass(under 2") and put it in my aquarium, within five days ALL the other fish were gone and there was just the very fat bass, which then died, apparently of overeating.
I wouldn't get all that afraid of those scary looking fish, those teeth aren't adapted to biting people, I'd be more afraid of a 12 oz piranha whos teeth ARE adapted to biting people or that tiny catfish that swims up your hoohoo.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

You must have had very small fishes in that aquarium RicMic. LM fingerlings that size normally feed on insect larvae and smaller fishes in the wild. In captivity, they can be trained to feed on what you give them. Meaning, they will eat what's readily available and most abundance. In this case, the small fishes in your aquarium. If you got locked in a walk-in cooler with nothing but cheesecakes, you're gonna eat cheesecake. BTW, LM bass is native to only the southeastern and midwestern U.S and northeastern Mexico. They are everywhere today and our native fishes are still around aren't they?

 

[RicMic]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

LM can and do eat almost anything that moves, including, snakes, baby ducks, frogs, salamanders, crayfish etc.. Introducing species where the native species have no protection from them is almost always a bad idea. We have a number of introduced species here in GA that somebody thought was a good idea and they have wiped out the native species and yet people still do it.

 

[bkwapisz]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

LM can and do eat almost anything that moves, including, snakes, baby ducks, frogs, salamanders, crayfish etc.. Introducing species where the native species have no protection from them is almost always a bad idea. We have a number of introduced species here in GA that somebody thought was a good idea and they have wiped out the native species and yet people still do it.

I'll second that. I was watching a piece on the Northern Snakeheads that are roaming around the southern US and they tracked it back to one guy (who confessed) and said that it was custom (he was asian decent) to release fish that they weren't going to eat. Apparently he bought 2 to make some soup and decided against it, so he let them go (male and female) and there you have it.

They also talked about the traficking of these Snakeheads from Asia and that they were selling them alive in the US, since they can spend an inordinate amount of time out of the water (like more than 9 hours!)

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

I'm not arguing the fact that introducing non-native species is a bad thing. However, I'm totally disagree on the idea that LM bass can "wipe out" native fishes in Asia. That is a ridiculous assumption. LM bass are ambush predators and will eat anything smaller then them that get in front of their face. They don't go on search and destroy missions so they can't and won't wipe out anything. The native fishes that are dumb enough probably will learn very quickly. I have heard of pike and musky eating baby duck but never heard of a bass doing so. I also saw a guy using baby duck as bait for big snakehead. I didn't stick around long enough to see if he catches anything. I would love to see a bass blows up on a baby duck because it would be a BIG bass. If it comes down to a bass vs. snakehead battle royal? my money is on the snakehead. They're not top predator by any mean in those waters. Snakehead is not some monster fish like they've been portrayed. They don't "walk" on land but rather push themselve a short distance using their fins. Imagine an amputee trying to move without legs, not very mobile. They have developed sort of a lung so they can live in their native habitat which is shallow, hot, little to no oxygen and often dries up. They have to breath air and able to move when the water dries up. You know that pretty, harmless little beta fish that your kids have? it breathes air too.

 

[RicMic]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

The memory of fish can be measured in seconds, so native species that haven't evolved over thousands of years with a predator like a LM, don't have much a chance to learn. I know one guy that catches the same LM time after time in the same spot, he knows it the same one, cause its blind in one eye, you would think it would learn, but it dosn't seem to. I frequently catch LM in the middle of deep lakes, right at the surface, it wouldn't seem to be a great ambush place. Bass will stay in one place and ambush whatever comes by, as long as the conditions are good, if not they move on and may spend lots of time roaming. I would agree, that LM wiping out all the native fish species in Asia, isn't going to happen, but I would have to agree with the biologists in Asia that it is entirely possible that the LM released there, may cause the extinction of SOME native species. When they raise LM in hatcheries, they release them when they are still tiny, why? because they start eating each other. They have that big mouth for a reason and it would take a large bass to eat a baby duck.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

Fishery Biologists always expect the worst. So Ric, do you fish Clarks Hill or Lake Lanier? The blueback herrings are what draw the bass out in open water.

 

[RicMic]

Re: Scariest Freshwater Fish I've Ever Seen!

I'm closest to Lanier, but planning to try Carters soon. I know there is SOME upside to the bluebacks, but they compete with other species and have virtually wiped some of them out. Thats the problem, people don't realize, that its seldom that you can add a species without subtracting others.