Remember when you were a kid and threw bread into the water to feed the fish?
These fish take that idyllic memory and turn it into a nightmare.
According to the video's uploader, Joao Antonio Cruz Junior, the roiling mass of carnivorous fish was spotted on a river in Brazil making quick work out of chunks of meat tossed casually into the water.
Just what are these creatures? They aren't piranhas.
"My best guess... is almost certainly catfish," John Lundberg, PhD., Curator Emeritus of Ichthyology at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia told The Huffington Post in an email, cautioning he'd need "a good still shot" of the fish out of the water to be certain. Specifically, he thought they might be "catfish of the family Pimelodidae and possibly of the genera Pinirampus, Calophysus, or Pimelodus."
In addition to the well-known piranha, the Amazon hosts a wide variety of other fearsome fish, including catfish. And what would a frenzy of piranha look like? Says Lundburg: "Piranhas acting en masse like these fish would do what piranha legends are about."
According to Lundberg, a wayward finger or toe that ended up in the catfish feeding would "get nipped," likely "without much loss of blood or flesh." A full body, however, would take much more punishment.
Thanks, we'll stick to the kiddie pool.
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