Scientific Name: Arapaima gigasThe arapaima, pirarucu, or paiche is a South American tropical freshwater fish. It is a living fossil and one of the largest freshwater fishes in the world.GROWTH: Arapaima can reach lengths of more than 2 m (6.6 ft), in some exceptional cases even more than 2.5 m (8.2 ft) and over 100 kg (220 lbs). The often cited maximum length of 4.5 m (14.8 ft) comes from a single second-hand-report from the first half of the nineteenth century, and is not confirmed. SIZE: The maximum-cited weight for the species is 200 kg (440 lbs). As one of the most sought after food fish species in South America, it is often captured primarily by handheld nets for export, by spearfishing for local consumption, and, consequently, large arapaima of more than 2 m are seldom found in the wild today.DIET: The diet of the arapaima consists of fish, crustaceans, and other small animals. The fish is an air-breather, using its labyrinth organ, which is rich in blood vessels and opens into the fish's mouth, an advantage in oxygen-deprived water that is often found in the Amazon River. This fish is therefore able to survive in shallow waters with dissolved oxygen as low as 0.5 ppm.Special care is needed when dealing with these fish as, since they are large, they can be hard to handle. With catch and release after the fish is landed, it must be held in a shallow pen/bed for about 3 hours. As this species goes into shock, a careful watch must be kept to make sure that it is coming up for air about every 15 minutes. If not, then the fish can be gently lifted so that its head comes out of the water. When this happens, it has a reflex action to breathe. Arapaimas are also known to leap out of the water if they feel constrained by their environment or harassed. View the original article here
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