A mom got a horrific shock when she opened up a can of tuna and found a pair of beady black eyes staring back at her.

Twenty-eight-year-old Zoe Butler made the grim discovery of the mystery purple creature as she prepared to dig into Prince’s fish chunks.

“I opened the top of the lid and saw a purple thing, a gut sack or intestine — then I turned it round and pushed it with a fork and saw it looking back at me,” said the clerical officer.

“It’s got like a spiny tail along the bottom – it’s quite grim. I dropped the fork, jumped back, screamed a bit and shouted for my nan to come and have a look.”

What is that?! Woman finds strange creature in can of tuna http://t.co/Tnne6U5wbOpic.twitter.com/Xx9xS4Eb2q — Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) January 23, 2015

The British mother of two was preparing a tuna dinner for her daughter on Monday when she stumbled across the strange critter. She then sent a photo of the fishy find to Princes, who have since apologized and launched an investigation.

“I haven’t shown it to the kids because they might get put off eating tuna. I just want to find out what it is and to make sure it doesn’t happen to somebody else.” “I didn’t set out to get compensation and I don’t a want lifetime’s supply of tuna.”

The tinned tuna, preserved in spring water, was bought as part of a multi-pack from Asda in Arnold, Nottingham.

@NottinghamPost can you tell me what this is? Nearly fed this to my children!! From Princes tuna chunks can pic.twitter.com/IHNw1PdFnO — Zoe Butler (@zoelouisebutler) January 19, 2015

Her grandmother, Susan Goddard, 69, added, “It’s a little red and has eyes, bright black, looking at you. We did manage to ascertain that it was dead.”

Dr. Hany Elsheikha, associate professor of veterinary parasitology at the University of Nottingham, said it could be some form of juvenile crab.

“All I can see from the picture is a body and the eyes are very prominent. The legs have been chopped off during the process.”

What is THIS? Mum makes a very odd discovery in her can of tuna: http://t.co/Hhy1EON5Bj pic.twitter.com/2h4Q73yVSZ — Nottingham Post (@Nottingham_Post) January 22, 2015

A spokesman for Princes stated, “We were contacted by Mrs Butler and immediately responded to apologize.”

“We are arranging for her to send us the product so that we can look into this matter fully.”

An Asda spokeswoman said they were awaiting the outcome of the investigation.

[Image via Mirror]