Arapaima

I include this fish because it is the big brother of the aruanã and one is likely to come across it in some quiet lagoon during a days fishing for other species. The likelihood of landing such a fish on fly tackle is extremely remote but not completely impossible.

The scientific name for this fish is Arapaima gigas known as the pirarucu by the natives of the region, it is also known as paiche, wararapaima and in some parts of Brazil, bodeco.  It is a member of the Osteoglossidae family and is reputed to be the largest freshwater fish in the world with mature specimens attaining the length of ten to fifteen feet. It is found in Brazil, Peru, Guyana, French Guyana, Surinam and Venezuela and strange as it may seem it was also introduced into waters in Thailand  about fifteen years ago as a sport fish ,(as though they did not have enough indigenous species of their own to fish for.)

 
The arapaima is now considered to be an endangered creature because of over fishing for food by the indigenous native populations; they are usually harpooned or shot with arrows for they are almost sitting ducks in some of the lagoons where they take up station, lying close to the surface in fairly shallow water.

The arapaima is easily recognized by its elongated size, it has a large head with bony protective plates and an under slung lower jaw with a large wide mouth, and its very size makes it easily identifiable.  Its scales are large and hard just like armour, so tough are these scales they can be used as nail files; you can buy them for this purpose in the souvenir shops in Manaus.  As with other fish species, the age of the arapaima can be deduced from the concentric rings on the scales, they can live up to about eighteen years. The fish is an overall brownish black but nearer the tail the scales are tinged with red or orange, this color is intensified during the spawning season and the head of the male fish darkens to almost black, the female takes on a chestnut coloration. The actual tail is very small compared with the rest of the body. Both the anal and dorsal fins are long and are situated close to the tail.

It has a large bony tongue that crushes the prey against the roof of the mouth and this tongue like the fish's scales is used as a seed grater by the river peoples. The fish has a swim bladder connected to the back of the throat, this bladder has a multitude of blood vessels acting as a primitive lung, allowing the arapaima to come to the surface and breathe air when the oxygen levels in the lagoons drops below the comfort level for the fish.

Spawning usually occurs at the start of the rainy season. The fish create a nest in shallow water areas and both males and females guard this nest against all predators with the female depositing up to 50,000 eggs, some say a lot more, but because of predation very few survive. The fry are protected for about two to three months by the parents until they are old enough to exist on their own when the parents then abandon them to fend for themselves. During my stays in the rain forest I have seen many of these large and awesome fish breaking the surface in the quiet lagoons but have only seen two caught by sport fisherman, both fish came to large surface plugs.