Its actually B. vagans..B. Vegans are being found in abundance in the Florida wild now. Especially southern Florida. Apparently people were letting them go and they are thriving.
Thanks Redneck. But from what I heard from a heavy breeder on Youtube, they have been found throughout southern Florida, not just 1 acre. If I can find the link I'll post it. And he seemed upset at the thought of people releasing them in the wild too.So to pursue this further; B.Vagans in florida (well estrablished??) my understanding is that they are only found in a citrus grove near Fort Pierce and that tjey only occupied one acre of that grove. Are there now T's all over Florida? That is sure going to scare the Disney goers especially the ones from england!!!!
This statement is simply not true and misinformation like this is one of the reasons exotic pets get an undeserved bad rap. The published reports of "piranha" being caught in Ohio almost always turn out to be aquarium raised pacu and there are no verified reports of a single piranha surviving the winter in any part of Ohio let alone "huge schools" . You may want to read http://www.opefe.com/cold1.html on the cold tolerance of Pygocentrus. The only documented case of a breeding population of piranhas (Serrasalmus genus) surviving the winter was in Florida in 1977 at an abandoned amusement park in an over 1,000 gallon outdoor pond.This is not uncommon. There have been huge schools of 4" to 5" Pirannah in Lake Erie near my hometown Cleveland over the past 5 years. Yes, how can they survive winters? I guess we'd have to live beneath the lake to figure this one out. Incredible