Mystery Fanged Fish in Utah

By Alex in Animals & Pets, Paranormal on Apr 4, 2008 at 4:25 pm

When a pond in Brigham City, Utah, froze over, over 4,000 fish turned up dead (officials surmised that either the pond was poisoned or it ran out of oxygen due to the thick ice).

Among the dead fish was this mystery fanged creature that baffled biologists:

While checking the pond, the creature was spotted. "When we first saw that fish, we thought what in the ….. is that thing?" Utah Divison of Wildlife Resources Ben Boyce said. The fish was found with carp and goldfish that had been stocked in the pond.

Biologists said they are not sure what the creature is and that it could be a type of trout whose tissue decomposed rapidly, making its teeth more prominent. Aquatic biologists said if they can’t figure it out, they’ll let the fish decompose fully and then examine the bone structure to determine the species.

Link | Gallery

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Thomas
Apr 4th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
That is perhaps the ugliest fish I’ve ever seen. And that’s why I don’t trust even medium-sized bodies of water.
Ali S.
Apr 4th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Sweet merciful Mumm-Ra! That thing is the scariest fish to come out of a pond ever! :X
jenjen
Apr 4th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Looks kind of like a muskellunge? Do they live in Utah? Picture this thing frozen and flattened: http://flickr.com/photos/dlyte/236978418/in/set-72157594270954152/
bob
Apr 4th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I’m here in Utah and when I saw it on the news I too thought “Musky?”.

That’s still my bet, but you’d think that biologists or the DNR or someone would know a Musky when they see one.

FWIW though, I think that Muskies aren’t one of the fish shown in the Utah fishing guide. I haven’t looked since last summer though.
sal
Apr 4th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Lovecraft was right. There’s no other way to explain this stuff. Seriously, look at this! http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/photogalleries/Antarct ica-pictures/index.html
oezicomix
Apr 4th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
too bad you never hear about the follow-up of these stories. i remember several posts here about “new creatures” – but as usual on the inet you never read about what happens afterwards. what was that screeming singing fish from russia again (which they ATE)…?
NeuroGirl
Apr 4th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Apparently news is pretty slow in Utah… the same page has a link to an article entitled “Escaped Monkey In Diaper Chases, Jumps On People In Neighborhood”…
CheeseDuck
Apr 4th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Its just a normal fish that got flattened and then decomposed rapidly.
Christophe
Apr 4th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
It’s Blinky from the Simpsons!
Uh, wait, no, it’s its cousin Fangy
Barbwire
Apr 4th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
That doesn’t look like any trout I ever saw, and looks proportionately too wide to be a muskie.
semi
Apr 4th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Most probably it’s a snakehead, a non-indigenous invasive species that has spread widely across the US due to people dumping them into ponds, etc. Snakeheads can actually crawl for short distances over land to other bodies of water which makes them particularly hard to contain.

They are really ugly too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channidae
empty-minded
Apr 4th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Speaking of the monkey in diapers, did you notice the article on the two SWAT officers that brought their children along for a drug raid? What were they thinking?
xander
Apr 4th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
This looks like a kind of fish I saw under my dock one time when i was little. I see it weekly in nightmares.
xander
Apr 4th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
although i think my fishly specter had more human-like teeth.
oezicomix
Apr 5th, 2008 at 7:00 am
@semi: the snakehead seems to be having a totally different set of teeth, though:
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ /USGS_snakeheadFace0131.jpg
alison
Apr 5th, 2008 at 7:43 am
In the first picture in the gallery it looks like Flotsam or Jetsam from The Little Mermaid. Just sayin’
tripleX
Apr 5th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
I knew goldfish were to sweet to be true. If the conditions are right they turn into Gremlins.
tian
Apr 5th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
It could be the reincarnation of Joseph Smith, founder of LDS.
kayla
Aug 7th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
it’s definately not a trout. could be a musky or a new type of pike.these are the only 2 fish i could think of that had teeth like that or even slightly resembled it.

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