As we all know, the unfathomable ocean is home to many behemoths, but there are also many mysterious creatures that we do not know, and the largest creature in the ocean as far as we know is the blue whale. Although rivers and lakes are far less massive than the oceans, there are many huge species in them. In the Amazon rivers of South America, there are many surprising and strange fish. The most famous of these is the frightening piranha, but in this basin, there is another fish that even piranhas cannot afford to provoke, the arapaima.
Arapaima is one of the oldest surviving fish species, and hundreds of years of evolution have not altered them. Its similar fossils show that they existed as early as more than 100 million years ago, which can be said to be the ancestors of fish. It is also the largest freshwater fish in all of South America.
I believe that everyone always has one or two fat friends around them, if your fat friend weighs about 200 pounds, we will think that he is a big meat ball, but such a weight can only be regarded as a little guy in the family of arapaima. Adult arapaima can reach 2 to 5 meters in length and weigh hundreds of kilograms. Because of its huge size, it is also known as the "elephant fish", such a huge creature, but it lives in the river, worthy of the title of "King of the River".
Arapaima
On February 27, 2015, a fishing team of four men went fishing deep in the Amazon River, and after laying out the bait and rods, they began to wait quietly, hoping to catch some "good goods".
While talking and laughing, suddenly the fishing rod moved and the fish was hooked. So one of the men began to close the line. Because the water in the river was relatively turbid, he looked down on the species of fish in the river, but gradually he began to find that something was wrong, his fishing rod became heavier, and the fish hooked in the river should be a huge "big guy".
On the way to the end, the giant fish in the river began to shake violently, trying to break free of the hook. The man tried his best to maintain, but he was accidentally taken down in the river by this big guy, and his leg was cut by the edge of the boat, at which time the most bloodthirsty and terrifying piranha in the Amazon river began to gather here.
The other companions rushed to help, but fortunately, with the help of the injured partner, he was relieved to re-board the ship. At this time, the piranhas in the river surrounded the hooked "giant fish", as if they were about to start attacking it. Just when everyone was worried that the giant fish that was hard to hook would be swallowed by piranhas, they were shocked by the scene in front of them.
The piranha swarm frantically rushed around the giant fish's body and tore at it, but there was not a single scar on the giant fish's body. After several stalemates between the two sides, the giant fish began to methodically swing its huge tail, violently attacking and flapping at the piranha swarm, beating the piranha swarm to pieces, and the piranha swarm could not take advantage of it, so they fled the water.
This is puzzling. However, it is precisely because of this feature that the anglers on the boat suddenly realized that this giant fish is a rare arapaima in the Amazon basin.
Because the surface of the arapaima is covered with a thick layer of scales with a metallic luster, the hardness and toughness of this scale is so strong that almost no fish can bite them, let alone a piranha that is so much smaller than it is. Moreover, arapaima also has strong giant teeth, occasionally uses piranhas as their prey, and even preys on crocodile pups, and can also pry open the hard shells of turtles and turtles. Therefore, the piranha naturally can't afford to annoy this big guy.
Scales of arapaima
After the piranha escaped, the 4 anglers continued to fight the giant fish and were bound to take down the big guy today. Even one of them jumped straight into the water to catch a fish. What he did not expect was that the power of the arapaima was infinitely greater than he had imagined, and its brute force and aggressiveness could even injure the bones of adult males.
Finally, after 2 hours of hard work, four men successfully caught the 460-pound arapaima, thus setting a world record for the largest freshwater fish ever recorded in South America.
Not the largest in the figure
Although the arapaima is infinitely powerful, but after understanding its habits, it is not difficult to catch, because arapaima is one of the freshwater fish that need to rely on oxygen to survive, coupled with the summer heat in the Amazon basin, and the slow flow of the river water has a low oxygen content, so the arapaima needs to often float to the surface to swallow the air to be able to breathe, which gives the fisherman a lot of opportunities, they only need to use a stick to knock hard, you can knock the giant fish stunned.
Fishermen beat arapaima
But the main reason they're easy to catch is because they're really stupid.
Arapaima seems to be inherently full of gossip, and whenever there is any wind and grass in the river, they like to come to the surface of the water to take a look. And they have no defensiveness against humans, stupid cuteness, like a group of unknown "melon eating masses".
Because of its ease of fishing and the large amount of meat, and the fact that scales can be used to make knives, this species has been the subject of intensive fishing by humans since the eighteenth century. Even a port can catch 1,200 tons a year, and the species was once in danger of extinction. In the end, it was under the protection of the legislation introduced by the government that it was able to survive.
At present, artificial breeding of arapaima has also begun in many areas, and after the population of this population has been stabilized to a certain extent, some fishing and eating can still be carried out with consent in some prescribed areas.
Because of the long existence of this fish, coupled with the gossipy personality, huge body and a hard scale like a dragon, many local tycoon fishermen are very fond of it, and they also raise this fish as a pet. Suddenly, the reputation of arapaima was great, "cute love without a head" it was popular with people around the world, many aquariums and even restaurants have raised this fish for ornamentation, can be described as a kind of fish out of the limelight.
Finally, I also hope that such a cute fish will not have a crisis of extinction because of our human intervention.
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