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The Arapaima or the locally known Paiche is a large species of bonytongue fish that is a native to the Amazon and the Essequibo basins of South America. They belong to the family Arapaimidae.
Amazon is the place to go if fishing is what brings a smile on your face. Be it a solo trip or a family vacation, there is no better fishing vacation than one here. The best places to go include Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela and Argentina. Brazil is way better than the rest with the population of fishes that you may not have seen or even heard before.
The Arapaima forms an important part of the local diet and that explains why overfishing and loss of habitat have simultaneously helped in the decline of the population of this species. Each fish can yield a minimum of 70 kg of meat. A few decades ago, the basins were flush with this scrumptious and huge fish.
The Arapaima is widely dispersed. There is no one place that has concentrated numbers. The fish also does not migrate. Scientist therefore speculates that there may be other species in the genre that are still to be discovered in the deep waters of the Amazon and its natural harbors.
Arapaima has also been introduced in lakes in Thailand and Malaysia where angling is allowed. Some of the fishes here are as heavy as 150 kilograms! Arapaima is caught in large nets because of its size or fishermen choose to harpoon them and then club them to death.
It is considered to be the world’s largest freshwater fish and can reach a whopping 3 meters or 9.8 feet in length. The average size of the fish is anything between 6 feet and seven inches to 8 feet and 2 inches.
The trophy catch for the species is 200 kilograms and the longest one that was ever caught was a 15 feet arapaima. However, with overfishing, finding large arapaima is a rarity today.
The species is found mainly concentrated in the rain forest Rivers of the Amazon Basin and in the nearby lakes and swamps. The fish is an air breather and is generally found along the coastline which makes it very easy for fishermen to use traditional fishing methods such as harpoons to catch them.
Scientists have tried to study this species but it gets difficult because the fish stays in the murky waters of the Amazon. Since they have modified gills, they can also breathe outside water. They do not necessarily have to be in freshwater because of this ability. They are found in floodplains, tributaries of the Amazon, lakes and swamps formed by the topography.
Basically, the fish can travel anywhere that the water takes them and it is common to sight them in Peru, Brazil and as far as Guyana.
The Arapaima is an opportunistic feeder. It is carnivorous and eats primarily meat in the form of fishes, crustaceans, insects, small land animals such as birds near the shores; basically anything that they come across. Only if there is a scarcity of food, then they feed on water vegetation and fruits and berries that float in water.