Fish I never expected to see on craigslist

I was browsing craigslist for tanks & to shock and amazement I seen someone selling 2 Payara. I was in shock all I could think was that is that crazy vampire fish I seen on River Monsters that was suspected of killing people. I know they can get extremely huge, but are fish like these even legal to own in the states? They creep me out lol

 

I didn't know what that was, so I googled it.

A fish with four to six inch long fangs whose main diet consists of PIRANHAS? In my aquarium? No thank you!

I wonder the reason the person is selling them... Did their child go missing?

 

that's freakin crazy! how much would it cost to feed them?!

 

if I had the tank space and funding to feed it I would totally go for it XP

 

I can find nothing saying they're illegal to keep. Many creatures are capable of causing severe harm, or even death, to people, yet are not illegal to keep. In particular, fish aren't likely to be regulated for this purpose because it's unlikely they will escape and attack the neighbor kid who's playing in the yard. More often, fish are restricted because of the danger they pose to the local ecosystem (snakeheads, for example, are illegal in the U.S. because they're top-of-the-chain predators, can live in almost all of our waterways, and are capable of traveling over land, meaning they won't just destroy one ecosystem. They'll walk themselves to the next river, lake, or pond and destroy that one, too). If these fish can't survive in U.S. waterways, they're not likely to be banned.

But yeah, they'd require a huge tank to keep, and you'd have to be super careful when doing tank maintenance. If they're willing to eat already-dead food, feeding costs wouldn't be horrendous. A trip to the seafood market and a purchase of whatever's on sale would likely do the trick.

 

Yea I wouldnt buy them. I wouldnt think you could have them here. They live in warm climates and freshwater. I live in Arizona. The ones I seen were $75 and were 8in. They get like 4 foot you would have to have an aquarium the size of my room. I was looking and apparently there is an aquarium here that has a couple. I heard the hardest part of keeping them past 10in is because they change conditions of the water they live in. It said you couldnt feed them goldfish and stuff so you would have to go to a live fish market or got fishing often to feed them.

I thought it was a crazy find so thought I would share. Here is a couple pics If you don't know what they look like. I aint sticking my hand in a tank with one lol


(pictures removed because I'm not hunting down sources and doing citations like a paper. just do a search in google s that's where I found them)

 

If you go onto you can find those fish and arapima and all sorts of weird fish for sale. I go on there often just to see what's new that people are trying to sell.

 

(pictures removed because I'm not hunting down sources and doing citations like a paper. just do a search in google s that's where I found them)

I'm sorry that it made it impossible to post pictures here, but this isn't just a matter of netiquette. It is also the law.
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfi...ected-material-and-images.121819/#post1329326
Mike has received legal notices regarding s that were used without permission. The fact that this is a legal issue is why we can't have people posting s that aren't theirs unless they have received permission to do so.