BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing has slapped a ban on piranhas, the famed flesh-eating tropical fish, after some were believed to have been let loose in the Yellow River in southern China, the official China Daily said on Thursday.The Beijing Aquarium, which owned about 300 of the razor-toothed fish from the Amazon region, killed them all on Christmas Day after the government imposed the national ban.
The piranhas, which rarely attack humans in their native South American rivers, were given sodium hypochlorite, causing them to lose consciousness after 30 minutes, the newspaper said.
Hundreds of thousands of yuan were spent on killing the fish, it quoted aquarium manager Hu Weiyong as saying. The dead fish will become samples to show visitors.
Piranhas, a silvery-gold colored fish with a red throat, can grow up to 20 inches (51 cm) in the wild and are banned in many countries.
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