The two mysterious fish were caught in the River Irtysh in Siberia by 25-year-old angler Alexey Volkov who described them as 'underwater dragons'.
Locals are blaming radiation or other pollution, possibly a result of the fuel in debris dropping from space rockets launched at Baikonur in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
But experts say they doubt the fish have been mutated by pollution and there are rare examples of such discoveries having been made before.
Volkov, from Tara, said the larger fish had two 'horns' while the smaller one had four.
'I was impressed with the catch. The fish were 14kg and 7kg. They had horns bent back towards their tail. The smaller fish had four horns.
'Both fish were immediately nicknamed dragons.'
Locals fear that pollution - possibly radioactive - was behind the strange catch.
Anglers warned Volkov against eating the the pike , but he did so anyway - apparently without ill-effects.
He preserved and dried the heads of the fish, which he keeps in his garage, reported The Siberian Times.
For years there have been concern over the impact of launch-stage rocket debris in Omsk region. Local reports have questioned whether this is behind illnesses in babies.
But a zirconium plant - now disused - is also close to the place where the fish were landed, revealed SuperOmsk news agency.
Expert Arkady Balushkin, chief of the Ichthyology laboratory of the Russian Academy of Sciences Zoological Institute, was sceptical about pollution as the cause.
'Any change happening under influence of chemical substances or radiation does not lead to new formations like this,' he said.
'A pike would still remain a pike. It might develop a tumour or oedema, and these are typical illnesses for these species. But it is not supposed to have any horns.
'To confirm that it was a pike with horns, and not another fish, I would need to see it for myself.'
Locals are blaming radiation or other pollution, possibly a result of the fuel in debris dropping from space rockets launched at Baikonur in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
But experts say they doubt the fish have been mutated by pollution and there are rare examples of such discoveries having been made before.
Volkov, from Tara, said the larger fish had two 'horns' while the smaller one had four.
'I was impressed with the catch. The fish were 14kg and 7kg. They had horns bent back towards their tail. The smaller fish had four horns.
'Both fish were immediately nicknamed dragons.'
Locals fear that pollution - possibly radioactive - was behind the strange catch.
Anglers warned Volkov against eating the the pike , but he did so anyway - apparently without ill-effects.
He preserved and dried the heads of the fish, which he keeps in his garage, reported The Siberian Times.
For years there have been concern over the impact of launch-stage rocket debris in Omsk region. Local reports have questioned whether this is behind illnesses in babies.
But a zirconium plant - now disused - is also close to the place where the fish were landed, revealed SuperOmsk news agency.
Expert Arkady Balushkin, chief of the Ichthyology laboratory of the Russian Academy of Sciences Zoological Institute, was sceptical about pollution as the cause.
'Any change happening under influence of chemical substances or radiation does not lead to new formations like this,' he said.
'A pike would still remain a pike. It might develop a tumour or oedema, and these are typical illnesses for these species. But it is not supposed to have any horns.
'To confirm that it was a pike with horns, and not another fish, I would need to see it for myself.'
Music: "I Can Feel it Coming" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: Daily Mail, The Siberian Times, Super Omsk
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