Product Description
Arapaima have broad, bony heads, upturned mouths and streamlined bodies with a dorsal fin stretching along their backs toward their tails, which are massive, yet stumpy in appearance. The head of the arapaima is copperish-green in color, their bodies are black with a white center and their tails are red. In Brazil, they are known as "pirarucu," a word from the Tupi language, which translates roughly as "red fish." In Peru, they are known as "paiche." When the rivers overflow, fish can be dispersed into the surrounding forest for miles, sometimes to remote areas where floodwater contains so much decaying vegetation that oxygen levels are too low to support most fish. This predicament does not affect the arapaima, as it has the ability to breathe air. Its gills are so small that it takes in air using a modified swim bladder that opens into the fish's mouth and acts as a lung. It can survive as long as 24 hours outside the water.
The arapaima is possibly the largest freshwater fish in the world, reaching up to 440 pounds (200 kilograms) and 10 feet (3 meters) in length. However, sizes of 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms) and 7 to 8 feet (2.2 to 2.4 meters) in length are more common.
The arapaima is found in Brazil, Peru and Guyana. They live in the slow-moving and typically oxygen-deficient rivers of the Amazon River basin floodplain.
The arapaima, pirarucu, or paiche is any large species of bonytongue in the genus Arapaima native to the Amazon and Essequibo basins of South America. Arapaima is the type genus of the subfamily Arapaiminae within the family Osteoglossidae. They are among the world's largest freshwater fish, reaching as much as 3 m (9.8 ft) in length.They are an important food fish. They have declined in the native range due to overfishing and habitat loss. In contrast, arapaima have been introduced to several tropical regions outside the native range (within South America and elsewhere), where they are sometimes considered invasive species.
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