N.D. Woman Catches Piranha in Reservoir

The small fish with big, sharp teeth is native to the Amazon River in South America.

Knapp said the catch was confirmed by biologists. The state Game and Fish Department believes the four-inch-long red-bellied piranha probably came from someone's aquarium.

"It had to have been somebody's pet," said Greg Power, the state fisheries chief.

Introducing a foreign species to North Dakota waterways is illegal, but officials said they have no idea who put the piranha in the reservoir, which Power said is a small fishery on an unnamed creek that has been dammed. Knapp said the warm-water fish would not have survived the winter, anyway.

Power said the piranha likely was too small to have done any damage to other fish in the reservoir, which has trout, panfish and other species.

He said he has heard of piranha being caught in other states, but that this might be a first for North Dakota.

"We have had goldfish that were put in (lakes) ... but never a piranha," Power said.

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