10/20/01Family mourns loss of 'pet' fish

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azcentral.com Wrote:

They hand-fed Jaws from their pond-side home for three decades.

Friends, relatives and neighborhoods on Pine Boulevard knew of the hulking fish that lurked there.

They grew to love it.

Jaws grew to a plump 60 pounds, on a diet of bread, pretzels, hotdogs, hamburgers - you name it.

They would mimic the "Jaws" movie riff as the chubby fish approached their back deck, glaring glossy white teeth that looked almost human.

Jaws was a charmer.

"He would actually smile at me," said Regina Gaydos, 50. "He's a big, fat fish with this little face and this little mouth."

On Monday night, Jaws floated up, presumably a victim of the recent cold snap, old age or both.

Jaws came to dominate the Gaydoses' post-meal fish and turtle feeding frenzies off their back deck.

"He used to come and look me right in the eye and play games with me with the food," Gaydos said. "He would push all the other turtles and fish out of the way to get the bread."

The Gaydoses were never sure, but believed Jaws to be a freshwater buffalo fish.

Jon Shenker, a biologist at Florida Tech, said Tuesday he believed Jaws was a South American pacu, an aquarium fish often let go in the wild.

The Gaydoses say Jaws had been in the 240-square-foot pond since Regina's father, Craig Karrer, built the home in 1981.

The fish was already more than a foot long back then, Karrer said. When he died, he was about three feet long.

"People used to come from all over to see that fish," Karrer said.

Children in the neighborhood would fish the pond, but Jaws was never fooled.

Pacu can grow to more than 80 pounds.

A member of the same family of fish as piranha, they are usually solitary, but vegetarian and less aggressive than their man-eating cousin. They're common to flooded forests, where they chomp down on fruits and nuts that fall from trees.

"Those jaws can crunch up hard nuts with ease," Shenker said via e-mail.

But Jaws seemed more lover than killer. The Gaydoses could practically pet him.

"He had a personality," said Lee Ann Fiegle, Kerrer's daughter who also fed and grew attached to Jaws

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