Arapaima
The arapaima (Arapaima gigas) is a huge, air-breathing fish of the Amazon basin, up to about 3 meters long. It is among the largest freshwater fish in the world and has been heavily overfished.
The arapaima (Arapaima gigas) is a huge, air-breathing fish of the Amazon basin, up to about 3 meters long. It is among the largest freshwater fish in the world and has been heavily overfished.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Arapaima in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Vertebrates lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Breathing Air
The arapaima has a swim bladder that works like a lung. It must surface to breathe every 5 to 15 minutes, which makes it easy to harpoon. Armored scales protect it from piranhas.
Community-Managed Recovery
In the Mamirauá Reserve in Brazil, local communities protect lakes and count the fish. Quotas based on counts have led arapaima populations to rebound and incomes to rise, a showcase of community-based conservation.
Parental Care
Parents guard the nest and their young, which swim beneath the male's head and feed on secretions from his head. See Marbled Lungfish.
Arapaima at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Arapaima gigas |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Actinopterygii |
| Order | Osteoglossiformes |
| Family | Arapaimidae |
| Field Guide group | Marine and Freshwater Fish |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Torpedo-shaped Amazonian giant up to 3 meters long, armored in flexible, piranha-proof mosaic scales with crimson-edged posterior markings and an obligate air-breathing labyrinthine swim bladder. |
| IUCN Red List status | Data Deficient (DD), assessed 1996 |
| Order | Osteoglossiformes |
| Breathing | Air-breathing swim bladder |