SmartAZ
12-03-2006, 09:41 PM
Are Illinois’ Toothy Fish Surviving Winters and Reproducing?
Posted by Scott Maruna on Dec 03 2006
LINK (http://biofort.swampgasbooks.com/2006/12/03/are-illinois-toothy-fish-surviving-winters-and-reproducing/)
Yesterday, I looked at the mass of faux piranha sightings that occurred this past year due to Wal-mart; this was not meant to imply though that all such instances are ersatz in nature.
I have lived my entire life in Illinois, and though the state (thankfully!) has its share of Fortean biology, it is not known for it like other geographic areas. One interesting exception unfolded for me when a salty old fisherman from Havana, Illinois once told me (or warned me?) that the Illinois River teems with “man-eating” piranhas. I remember disbelieving him at the time, but now I am not quite so sure.
Again, what is under the river’s surface is impossible to point out, so to support his hypothesis, one must look at other small bodies of water in Illinois.
On September 16, 2003, Ed Grzesiak and Theresa Robnett were fishing together on John Boardman Park Lake near DeKalb. After a relaxing albeit unsuccessful hour, their luck changed. Ed’s line tightened and a short but classic struggle between fish and angler ensued. In time, the fish suffered itself to be pulled to the surface, revealing a bright orange body.
“Cool, a goldfish,” commented Theresa.
“Oh wait, that’s not a goldfish!” she added, after the thrashing fish was in the boat. It was then evident that Ed had caught—a piranha.
For those not familiar with them, piranhas are bloodthirsty fish native to South America that grow to between four and eighteen inches long, depending on the subspecies. Explorers have told tales of helplessly watching as an unfortunate animal that had waded into a river containing a hungry school of these fish was stripped down to bones in minutes. As a result, piranhas are renowned throughout the world as killers, a reputation that is reinforced by the aggressive outthrust of their teeth.
A year earlier, fifty-year-old Melvin Mitchell had experienced a similar toothy encounter. He was fishing for bluegill in Belleville’s Belleview Park Pond when his nightcrawler fatally attracted a good-sized red-bellied piranha. Biologist Steve Pallo of the state’s Fisheries Department confirmed its species.
In addition, in October of 2000, another piranha was drawn up from the depths of a pond in Carbondale. Brooks Burr of nearby Southern Illinois University’s zoology department was conveniently available to verify the identity of the unusual catch.
Rarities? Flukes? Not necessarily! Every year since the mid-70’s either one or two full-sized piranhas have been reported caught in Illinois. That fact in and of itself is not too chilling—until you consider the following:
· Multiple piranha catches have occurred in several individual bodies of water (e.g., a lake near Pawnee).
· Some (many?) catches have been unreported.
· “It was released by an aquarist” has been the official explanation for every single piranha caught in Illinois. (Presumably, he had grown tired of feeding and caring for his carnivorous pet).
· Piranhas are one of the trickiest and most difficult fish to catch, especially with rod and reel. This is because piranhas are not fond of worms and will avoid them if there is any alternative. (Source: Peg Doty, Natural Resource Education Center in Genoa, Illinois.)
If piranhas are so difficult to catch, then those fish that have bothered to bite a worm represent only a small—a very small—fraction of the state’s piranha population. That would imply a large piranha population, which would in turn imply a large population of sadistic, lazy piranha-hobbyists. Can there really that many? Or could piranhas—quietly and slowly—be making a home for themselves in Illinois’ waterways?
Authorities have been quick to pooh-pooh the idea. Chris Coco, curator of fishes at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who was contacted for reference when the Carbondale piranha was verified, reassured the community that “the cold water in the winter is going to cause [the piranhas] to die as soon as the water stays cold for a while.” Biologist Pallo took that line too. “Sure they show up from time to time, but they do not survive our cold winters, so they should not be a problem.”
Take note, though, of the biologist’s choice of words in answer to an earlier question. When the Bellville News-Democrat pressed Pallo on the origin of the fish, he replied, “Yes, the fish is a piranha, and obviously it is not native to Illinois. Most likely a release from an aquarium of a person who got tired of it.”
Most likely? Did he say “most likely”? One need not strain one’s brain to realize that “most likely” leaves room for another possibility: that the piranha was born in the lake! If so, piranhas are not just surviving our winters, they are also thriving—i.e., reproducing. That would not be outlandish. Piranhas are known to exist at latitude 36-37° south in South America; and southern Illinois is located about latitude 38° north—which is not a significant difference.
In April 1999, The Practical Sportsman, a half-hour weekly television show on hunting and fishing in Michigan, had an unusual topic—the growing piranha population in Michigan. The guest was a piranha breeder named Sparky Miller from Sturgis, Michigan, who had studied and raised them for twelve years. Here is an excepted portion of the interview:
(Host) Bill Elliott: I asked Sparky if he thought there was any chance a piranha released into Michigan waters could reproduce.
Sparky Miller: Everything that I’ve read and was told and could find and lay my hands on stated that the water had to be 84, 86 degrees and had to be a certain PH, more on the acid side, in order for them to spawn. But a couple years ago two of these—these two underneath the big one—are a result of my attempts at keeping them from spawning by keeping the water at 72 and it looked like they were spawning. Nah! Too cold. The book says they can’t. Several weeks later—little fish in there. That was at 72 degrees. So, if they can survive ice-coated tanks, it would seem very possible they could survive.
Bill Elliott: Sparky Miller now believes it would be possible for a piranha to spawn in a warm-water lake in Michigan. But even if a piranha could spawn, I asked Sparky if he thought there was any way it could survive the winter?
Sparky Miller: As of about three years ago I would have said no, but in the last three years, moving to a new location and not having room in the house for all the tanks, I put them in the shed. And not being there all the time, occasionally having a breaker trip, power fails in the wintertime. It just happens in the evening after you’ve last checked on them. Next morning you get out there and the tanks are iced over and the rest of your collection is all dead. These guys are still swimming. Not fast, but they were still swimming. To help keep the tank clean we had a fish called a plecostomus. It looks like an ugly catfish, if you will. It was dead. And the first freeze-over this big guy’s buddy and one of his offspring died in that, and then subsequently the tanks froze three more times—or two more times. Had a total of three freezes, and the one biggest tank was ruined as a result of it. And can they live in Michigan? I believe it is possible. They’re still alive.
Bill Elliott: These piranhas are the only ones left from seven large tanks of breeders that Sparky maintained. Not every piranha can spawn at 72 degrees, and not every piranha can survive freezing temperatures. Perhaps the piranhas we’re looking at right now are aberrations in the fish world that could only have survived in Sparky Miller’s tanks, and not have survived in the wild.
Sparky Miller: It’s possible. It’s possible that these have just simply been toughened by their experiences. But never, ever sell short the ability of God’s creatures to adapt themselves to their surroundings that they find themselves in and prosper therein. [Italics added.]
So, we are left with the following:
* Piranhas can survive in iced-over water from a Michigan winter
* Piranhas can reproduce at seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit
* The state of Illinois is inhabited by hundreds, if not thousands, of seemingly of irresponsible piranha owners and dumpers
Maybe the old Havana fisherman was right. Count your toes when you emerge from the Illinois River.
Posted by Scott Maruna on Dec 03 2006
LINK (http://biofort.swampgasbooks.com/2006/12/03/are-illinois-toothy-fish-surviving-winters-and-reproducing/)
Yesterday, I looked at the mass of faux piranha sightings that occurred this past year due to Wal-mart; this was not meant to imply though that all such instances are ersatz in nature.
I have lived my entire life in Illinois, and though the state (thankfully!) has its share of Fortean biology, it is not known for it like other geographic areas. One interesting exception unfolded for me when a salty old fisherman from Havana, Illinois once told me (or warned me?) that the Illinois River teems with “man-eating” piranhas. I remember disbelieving him at the time, but now I am not quite so sure.
Again, what is under the river’s surface is impossible to point out, so to support his hypothesis, one must look at other small bodies of water in Illinois.
On September 16, 2003, Ed Grzesiak and Theresa Robnett were fishing together on John Boardman Park Lake near DeKalb. After a relaxing albeit unsuccessful hour, their luck changed. Ed’s line tightened and a short but classic struggle between fish and angler ensued. In time, the fish suffered itself to be pulled to the surface, revealing a bright orange body.
“Cool, a goldfish,” commented Theresa.
“Oh wait, that’s not a goldfish!” she added, after the thrashing fish was in the boat. It was then evident that Ed had caught—a piranha.
For those not familiar with them, piranhas are bloodthirsty fish native to South America that grow to between four and eighteen inches long, depending on the subspecies. Explorers have told tales of helplessly watching as an unfortunate animal that had waded into a river containing a hungry school of these fish was stripped down to bones in minutes. As a result, piranhas are renowned throughout the world as killers, a reputation that is reinforced by the aggressive outthrust of their teeth.
A year earlier, fifty-year-old Melvin Mitchell had experienced a similar toothy encounter. He was fishing for bluegill in Belleville’s Belleview Park Pond when his nightcrawler fatally attracted a good-sized red-bellied piranha. Biologist Steve Pallo of the state’s Fisheries Department confirmed its species.
In addition, in October of 2000, another piranha was drawn up from the depths of a pond in Carbondale. Brooks Burr of nearby Southern Illinois University’s zoology department was conveniently available to verify the identity of the unusual catch.
Rarities? Flukes? Not necessarily! Every year since the mid-70’s either one or two full-sized piranhas have been reported caught in Illinois. That fact in and of itself is not too chilling—until you consider the following:
· Multiple piranha catches have occurred in several individual bodies of water (e.g., a lake near Pawnee).
· Some (many?) catches have been unreported.
· “It was released by an aquarist” has been the official explanation for every single piranha caught in Illinois. (Presumably, he had grown tired of feeding and caring for his carnivorous pet).
· Piranhas are one of the trickiest and most difficult fish to catch, especially with rod and reel. This is because piranhas are not fond of worms and will avoid them if there is any alternative. (Source: Peg Doty, Natural Resource Education Center in Genoa, Illinois.)
If piranhas are so difficult to catch, then those fish that have bothered to bite a worm represent only a small—a very small—fraction of the state’s piranha population. That would imply a large piranha population, which would in turn imply a large population of sadistic, lazy piranha-hobbyists. Can there really that many? Or could piranhas—quietly and slowly—be making a home for themselves in Illinois’ waterways?
Authorities have been quick to pooh-pooh the idea. Chris Coco, curator of fishes at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who was contacted for reference when the Carbondale piranha was verified, reassured the community that “the cold water in the winter is going to cause [the piranhas] to die as soon as the water stays cold for a while.” Biologist Pallo took that line too. “Sure they show up from time to time, but they do not survive our cold winters, so they should not be a problem.”
Take note, though, of the biologist’s choice of words in answer to an earlier question. When the Bellville News-Democrat pressed Pallo on the origin of the fish, he replied, “Yes, the fish is a piranha, and obviously it is not native to Illinois. Most likely a release from an aquarium of a person who got tired of it.”
Most likely? Did he say “most likely”? One need not strain one’s brain to realize that “most likely” leaves room for another possibility: that the piranha was born in the lake! If so, piranhas are not just surviving our winters, they are also thriving—i.e., reproducing. That would not be outlandish. Piranhas are known to exist at latitude 36-37° south in South America; and southern Illinois is located about latitude 38° north—which is not a significant difference.
In April 1999, The Practical Sportsman, a half-hour weekly television show on hunting and fishing in Michigan, had an unusual topic—the growing piranha population in Michigan. The guest was a piranha breeder named Sparky Miller from Sturgis, Michigan, who had studied and raised them for twelve years. Here is an excepted portion of the interview:
(Host) Bill Elliott: I asked Sparky if he thought there was any chance a piranha released into Michigan waters could reproduce.
Sparky Miller: Everything that I’ve read and was told and could find and lay my hands on stated that the water had to be 84, 86 degrees and had to be a certain PH, more on the acid side, in order for them to spawn. But a couple years ago two of these—these two underneath the big one—are a result of my attempts at keeping them from spawning by keeping the water at 72 and it looked like they were spawning. Nah! Too cold. The book says they can’t. Several weeks later—little fish in there. That was at 72 degrees. So, if they can survive ice-coated tanks, it would seem very possible they could survive.
Bill Elliott: Sparky Miller now believes it would be possible for a piranha to spawn in a warm-water lake in Michigan. But even if a piranha could spawn, I asked Sparky if he thought there was any way it could survive the winter?
Sparky Miller: As of about three years ago I would have said no, but in the last three years, moving to a new location and not having room in the house for all the tanks, I put them in the shed. And not being there all the time, occasionally having a breaker trip, power fails in the wintertime. It just happens in the evening after you’ve last checked on them. Next morning you get out there and the tanks are iced over and the rest of your collection is all dead. These guys are still swimming. Not fast, but they were still swimming. To help keep the tank clean we had a fish called a plecostomus. It looks like an ugly catfish, if you will. It was dead. And the first freeze-over this big guy’s buddy and one of his offspring died in that, and then subsequently the tanks froze three more times—or two more times. Had a total of three freezes, and the one biggest tank was ruined as a result of it. And can they live in Michigan? I believe it is possible. They’re still alive.
Bill Elliott: These piranhas are the only ones left from seven large tanks of breeders that Sparky maintained. Not every piranha can spawn at 72 degrees, and not every piranha can survive freezing temperatures. Perhaps the piranhas we’re looking at right now are aberrations in the fish world that could only have survived in Sparky Miller’s tanks, and not have survived in the wild.
Sparky Miller: It’s possible. It’s possible that these have just simply been toughened by their experiences. But never, ever sell short the ability of God’s creatures to adapt themselves to their surroundings that they find themselves in and prosper therein. [Italics added.]
So, we are left with the following:
* Piranhas can survive in iced-over water from a Michigan winter
* Piranhas can reproduce at seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit
* The state of Illinois is inhabited by hundreds, if not thousands, of seemingly of irresponsible piranha owners and dumpers
Maybe the old Havana fisherman was right. Count your toes when you emerge from the Illinois River.