Sharks aren't the only scary fish!!

Today we are learning about a fish but it is not just any fish – it is a man-eating fish!

Once there was a 11 year old boy swimming in a river in India. Something came and dragged him under water and he was never seen again. A couple of days later a two year old went into the same river and something pulled him under the water too. Then a water buffalo came to drink and something pulled it under the water.
It was a mystery – what was pulling people and animals under the water?
The water was too cold and too far up the river for bull sharks. It was too cold and too far up for crocodiles, and a gharial's snout wasn't the the right shape to do it.
Some people went swimming and they found a fish called a goonch.  The name goonch means "man-eating catfish" and it was probably the what dragged the 2 boys and the buffalo under the water.

A goonch can get very very BIG and have a very very BIG mouth with backwards pointing teeth so its prey can't escape. The goonch can be more than six feet long and weigh more than 200 pounds. That's bigger than my dad!

In India, sometimes dead people are put into the river for a funeral. The goonches fed on the dead people and liked it. Then they started eating living people too! Some scientists think that a goonch can smell out human flesh.

The goonch is also known as the giant devil catfish.

Goonches are cool but my article is now over.

bye bye!

cassowarygirl

This cool picture is from Animal Planet