Piranha

Description:

Pygocentrus is a genus of the piranha family Characidae. All are native to tropical South America. It is mainly located in the Amazon, San Francisco and Orinoco rivers. Three especies are fully recognized. P. cariba (Humboldt, 1821) in the Orinoco; P. nattereri Kner, 1869 in the Amazonas: and P. piraya (Cuvier, 1819) in the San Francisco River. P. palometa Valenciennes, 1850 is a dubious species (Fink, 1993; Machado-Allison and Fink, 1996). All the species are predatory, scavengers and form huge schools. The Chi-Cohala tribe uses the teeth to make tools and weapons.

Habitat:

Piranhas are found in the Amazon basin, in the Orinoco, in rivers of the Guyanas, in the Paraguay-Paraná, and the São Francisco River systems. Some species of piranha have broad geographic ranges, occurring in more than one of the major basins mentioned above, whereas others appear to have more limited distributions. Aquarium piranhas have been introduced into parts of the United States with specimens occasionally found in the Potomac River, Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri and even as far north as Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin, although they typically do not survive cold winters. Piranhas have also been discovered in the Kaptai Lake in south-east Bangladesh. Research is being carried out to establish how piranhas have moved to such distant corners of the world from their original habitat. It is anticipated that some rogue exotic fish traders have released them in the lake to avoid being caught by anti-poaching forces.

Notes:

Camden NJ, Aquarium