Piranha, also known as piranha, scientific name red-bellied sawfish. It is mainly distributed in Argentina, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and other regions in South America.
The most inhabited by piranhas is the Amazon River, which is the second longest in the world and the first in terms of traffic, and there are many piranhas in the entire basin. However, the first time most people hear about piranhas, almost all of them come from film and television works.
The piranha is known for its fierceness because of its sharp teeth, and when it bites its prey, it twists its body and bites 16 cubic centimeters of flesh in one bite. Because piranhas are social fish, even ferocious carnivores may be eaten only by white bones once they enter the water.
Someone once witnessed in Brazil, a group of piranhas tearing an adult bison into pieces in a short period of time. However, such a fierce piranha is used as a "snack" by the arapaima of the Amazon River.
Piranhas
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > one of the freshwater fish kings: arapaima</h1>
Arapaima, also known as arapaima, walrus, elephantfish, warship dragon and dragon fish. Arapaima is an ancient animal that zoologists have calculated that arapaima has been living on Earth for more than 100 million years.
Mainly distributed in the Amazon Basin of South America, it is a huge freshwater fish, adult arapaima can be more than 2.5 meters to 3 meters long, the maximum weight of more than 400 pounds, much heavier than an old sow.
Arapaima is a carnivorous fish, mainly preying on fish and shrimp in the Amazon River, and in the case of insufficient food, it will also prey on snakes, small crocodiles, turtles, frogs and various water birds, including larger insects.
It is worth mentioning that the arapaima is a very slow-moving fish, but this does not prevent it from preying on agile snakes and small crocodiles. Because the arapaima relies on its brute force, using its tail as a weapon, a dragon swinging tail, even if an adult is patted by it, it is either dead or injured.
Giant arapaima
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > wearing armor and unable to penetrate</h1>
As mentioned earlier, the piranha relies on its sharp teeth to run across the Amazon River, even if the lion and tiger go down the river, it still becomes the food of the piranha, but there is no way to take the arapaima, even if the arapaima lets the piranha bite, it cannot bite.
Because the surface of the arapaima has a thick layer of scales, and the scales of the arapaima are completely different from the scales of ordinary fish. Each of its scales is so large and hard that it can even be described as a steel plate, which is polished by locals after the scales are removed and polished to be used as a hand claw knife.
Scientists at the University of California have conducted in-depth studies on the scales of arapaima, and found that the main component of these scales is soft collagen, combined with mineralized scales on the outer layer of minerals.
These scales are not only hard, but there is also a mystery hidden inside the scales. Arapaima scales exhibit a very rare spiral plywood Vena structure. When attacked by external forces or bitten by piranhas, it automatically makes an extension reaction to counteract the exerted force from the outside.
Arapaima fish scales
However, what people did not expect was that the arapaima was covered in natural "armor", and even the kitchen knife could not cut it, but it could not escape the crisis of near extinction.
how silly is < h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > arapaima? </h1>
Although the arapaima is large and has a brute force, its IQ is really too low, why do you say so? Because arapaima are very curious, when they hear the sound of splashes on the surface of the water, they will swim over with their heads probing.
However, the fishermen crouching on the shore and in small boats will quietly hold up a large mallet at this time, waiting for the arapaima to approach, and then knocking down the arapaima to beat the arapaima to death, so it is also known as the "silly roe deer" in the water.
Locals use mallets to catch arapaima
Arapaima is loved by local people because of its overly simple catch, which leads to crazy hunting by mallets, coupled with the advantages of good fish meat and no fine spines.
A normally healthy fish can produce about 150 pounds of fish meat, so its economic value is higher. Because of this, since the 1970s, the population of arapaima perched in the Amazon basin has begun to show a sharp decline.
Captured
On the other hand, the rainforests of the Amazon River have been deforested, which has artificially destroyed the habitat of arapaima, resulting in the obstruction of the breeding system of arapaima, thus exacerbating the pace of arapaima to endangerment.
Before the last century, brazil alone counted about 1200 tonnes of arapaima caught annually. In 2006, only 380 tonnes of arapaima were caught across the Amazon basin, a difference of about a quarter compared to the previous century.
Arapaima
According to aquatic animal scientists, the current population of wild arapaima in the Amazon River is between 50,000 and 100,000, which should not exceed this value.
Judging from the reproductive ability of arapaima, it is a kind of strong reproductive ability, an adult arapaima, with an annual spawning capacity of about 160,000 grains, but even if it is so high-yielding, it can not withstand crazy fishing.
Arapaima, which loves piranhas and crocodiles, has become an endangered species, partly because it is too stupid and too curious to kill itself; on the other hand, it is caused by the lack of resource protection, overfishing and environmental destruction of the local people.
At present, the local protection measures for arapaima have been adopted, taking into account the needs of the arapaima market, so it has been artificially reared to replace wild-caught arapaima.
On the earth, the endangerment of any species is inseparable from the human factor, if the local protection measures are not taken, even if the arapaima is fierce, the final outcome will be the same as China's white sturgeon, to extinction! #Endangered Species ##巨骨舌鱼 #