OXFORD, Ohio — What do you do with a 30-pound piranha?

        That sounds like a David Letterman line. But for Annette Buskirk and her pet, Pacu, it's a serious problem.

        “I figure by the fall, he'll need a much larger tank than the 210-gallon one I have now,” Buskirk said. “I just don't know where to call.”

        She tried the Newport Aquarium, but it already had enough piranhas.

        “If a library or a doctor's office could take him, then he'd be able to advance,” Buskirk said. “It is hard for me to manage, living on Social Security.”

        Pacu, a Colossoma macropomus or generic piranha, enjoys a wide variety of foods. And he eats three meals a day.

        “Pacu likes raw potatoes, broccoli, baby carrots, algae disks, honeydew cantaloupe, chicken liver, frogs and fish,” Buskirk said. “It feels like I'm living with Jaws.”

        Buskirk got Pacu nearly five years ago.

        “I'm attached to him,” she said, tossing him a piece of raw potato. “I love him to death. He has his own personality.”

        Pacu's tank dominates Buskirk's living room, weighing about 2,310 pounds with gravel and water. Although many fish grow to fit the size of their habitat, Pacu keeps growing.

        “When I got him, he was in an aquarium so small he could barely turn around,” Buskirk says. “I felt so sorry for him, I just had to get him.”

        Buskirk owned eight generic piranhas before Pacu but had no idea this one would live as long as he has or grow so large. She fears she won't be able to take care of him much longer.

        “I never dreamed I'd get stuck with one this big,” Buskirk said. “But if I had the chance, I'd get another one.”

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