Piranhas are one of the most famous fish in the Amazon and belong to the class Bony fish, the Characinidae family.

Fish of the piranha family (Serrasalmidae) are characterized by a laterally compressed high body.

There are several types of piranhas, the largest of which reaches 60 cm in length, weighing up to 1 kg, the common piranha is half that size.

Piranhas hunt for everything that moves in the water, they do not take anything from the bottom.

These bloodthirsty predators have powerful jaws with very sharp, cutting teeth. They are able to bite into a steel hook and tear the skin large mammal... Piranhas gather in flocks and attack the animal, dealing with it with lightning speed, for example, they gnaw an adult tapir to the bone in a minute. Piranhas are attracted by splashes and movements in the water, and especially by the smell of blood. They are dangerous for a person accidentally in the water. This small but dangerous fish it is endowed with powerful muscles and a rather wide tail fin, which allows it to swim very quickly.

Young fish are very beautiful: a blue body with dark spots, a crimson chest and paired fins, a black caudal fin with a vertical blue stripe. Depending on which of the eighteen species it belongs to, the piranha can range in color from brown-green to silver-black. Adult individuals acquire a gloomy coloration: they are either completely black or studded with gold sparkles. The tips of sharp wedge-shaped teeth sticking out from slightly open thick lips give piranhas a menacing look, the number of which on the upper and lower jaws varies - 66 and 77, respectively. Probably, it was these teeth that caused the appearance of many creepy stories about the bloodthirstiness of piranhas. Still: as a result of a group attack in 10-15 seconds from the victim, for example a large fish, only pieces remain. They react very strongly to blood, since this is due to their function in nature: piranhas primarily eat sick or wounded animals. For example, a drop of blood put from a pipette into a 250-liter aquarium drives the hungry piranhas into a frenzy after 30-40 seconds. Therefore, you should not find yourself in those waters where piranhas live with an open wound.

They live in rivers and lakes South America, including in the basins of the Paraguay, Amazon and Orinoco rivers. Here piranhas gather in foam schools, and predators make massive raids on their prey. They feed on fish, amphibians, birds and mammals; herbivorous species - on aquatic plants.

Nature has given aggressive piranhas the ability to quickly regenerate: their wounds heal literally in a matter of days, or even hours, without even leaving a trace.

The piranhas have quite peaceful relatives - colossom and metinis. Outwardly, these fish are very similar to their deadly "sisters", only they have a flatter body, without powerful muscles, and there is no protruding lower jaw. And they feed on aquatic plants. In their homeland, these fish have a reputation for being useful: by eating rapidly growing algae, they prevent the reservoir from turning into a swamp. From the teeth of piranhas, the natives make necklaces, as well as razors and saws for cutting wood.
How piranhas hunt.
The dark waters of the Amazon hide the stormy life of its inhabitants. The bottom of the river is covered with layers of decaying silt, densely overgrown with plants. But a pair of large rounded fish swims to the site, free of vegetation, scaring away the peacefully swimming various living creatures. These strangely shaped fish have a short head. and blunt, with a protruding lower jaw and they are covered with small shiny scales, somewhat reminiscent of chain mail. Because of such a jaw, they are somewhat similar to bulldogs, the resemblance is completed by frequent sharp teeth. These are legendary predatory piranhas, probably well known to you from adventure films and books.
But for now, the piranhas are peaceful. One of them began to "cut" the aquatic plants with her teeth - this is the male, so he prepares the place for spawning. Here the female swept out several portions of gelatinous caviar, which settled to the bottom. Piranhas guard the clutch for only one night, and by morning they leave the coveted place, leaving the fry to their fate.
A few hours later, the pair caught up with their flock, from which they fought off for spawning. And in the flock, a battle is raging - piranhas attack the caiman. He inadvertently tried to swim across the river in deep place and was ambushed. Piranhas attack the reptile in a crowd, tear out pieces of meat, greedily eat them and again rush to the victim. Sometimes, in a fit of uncontrollable hunger and rage, they even bite each other. But also wounded, they strive to get an extra piece of caiman.
The forces of the caiman are running out, but he still tries to swim - away, away from dangerous place! The last jerk of a mighty body - but no, the strength has dried up ... Cayman slowly sinks to the bottom, and the piranhas close over him, continuing the feast.
A brilliant flock of pimelodus angels follows the piranhas, eating up the smallest remains of the predators' meal with pleasure. And the predators themselves, having eaten, leave, and for several days after that, peace and tranquility will reign in the flock of piranhas.

In a special subfamily, the genera of mylossoma (Mylossoma), whose representatives feed on animal and plant foods, the metinnis (Metynnis), which feed mainly on aquatic vegetation, and the genera of the colosome and mileus (Colossoma, Myleus), which feed on fruits falling into the water, are distinguished.

Metinnis are of great benefit, clearing water bodies of overgrown aquatic vegetation, therefore in the countries of South America they are under protection, their export is prohibited. Some of the previously exported individuals are bred in amateur and public aquariums, which fish are decorated with a pure silver color or another, brighter color - a blue body with dark large spots on the sides effectively contrasts with crimson-red breasts and fins.

Piranha is known for its aggressiveness, so its danger to humans is not questioned. A school of these fish is capable, without exaggeration, to leave only one skeleton from its prey in a few seconds. Thanks to its teeth, the fish can easily grab onto any prey and tear off a piece from it. Every year about 80 people suffer from piranha bites, despite the fact that only a few of them hunt warm-blooded mammals, in particular, "red" and "black".

The wounds left by piranha teeth are always serious and never heal completely. Many are left without body parts - a finger or a hand. But, in fact, to get enough, one fish needs up to 50 grams of meat. According to recent research, their aggressiveness is also exaggerated. They do not at all attack everything that comes their way. Their period of bloodthirstiness falls on the spawning and dry season. In other cases, this fish is unusually cowardly, and will prefer to swim away from danger, rather than fight it. So, in the rainy season, when the water level rises by 15 meters, and the flooded forests become a real feast for piranhas, the locals calmly climb into the water. Unless, of course, they have a bleeding wound. To date, not a single case has been recorded when a piranha ate a person.

Piranhas are classified as predatory fish. She is rightfully considered one of the most dangerous in the world. And you can find it in the basins of the Amazon, Paraguay, Parana and Essequibo rivers.

The common piranha grows to an average of 20 centimeters. The mass of an individual is up to one kilogram, no more, but there are exceptions. Large features of the head catch up with fear, as well as protruding teeth, which, in fact, pose a threat. The teeth are razor sharp. Each is no more than one centimeter long, but usually up to 5 millimeters. With them, the fish instantly pierces the skin of its victim, and, for a piranha, it does not matter whether a person is in front of it or an animal. With its teeth to an adult, a predator can easily bite off a finger. Among themselves, the fish is slightly different in color. As a rule, the sides of a piranha are silvery or dark, and the color itself is olive green or bluish black.

Small fish live in schools and spend most of their time in search of food. Piranhas are voracious, so they can often be found in bodies of water where there is actually a lot of prey. Moreover, sometimes the predator can be found not only in rivers, but also in the seas, but not during spawning. By the way, piranha was sometimes found in unusual climatic conditions- cold rivers.

Piranha in the aquarium

As a rule, the fish waits for the victim in the shelter. And instantly attack the prey. The latter does not even have time to realize how and what happened. And when a predator hunts a school of fish and the victims scatter, the piranhas catch them one by one, and then swallow them whole or gnaw off pieces of meat. Scientists have found that toothy fish have a very sensitive sense of smell, so they notice any smell that comes from a potential meal. And piranhas feel the blood best of all. They say that a flock of adults is capable of destroying everything in its path, not sparing even underwater plants. And the only ones who are not afraid of gluttonous fish are catfish of the genus Hoplosternum. And why, experts still cannot understand.

There are many stories in which it comes about the attack of these aggressive predators on humans. But in fact, most of the stories are fictional. However, cases when fish actually attacked a person are not isolated.

Giant nibbler

The largest piranha that a man has ever met has grown to 80 centimeters in length. She weighs about 2 kilograms. This can be found even in Russian reservoirs. For example, one specimen fell into the usual nets of fishermen in Kazakhstan (near the village of Mutkenov, Pavlodar region). But in fact, the fish is found in South America and, scientists say, the life of our weather conditions is unacceptable to her. Ichthyologists claim that piranhas could have been released from a private aquarium (and this is not an isolated case), and the fish have adapted to the unusually low water temperature. In this case, the vitality of the piranha is striking.

Another monster was caught by British traveler and angler Jeremy Wade. He caught a miracle of nature in Africa, during his expedition to the Congo. His catch grew to one and a half meters in length, and in the giant mouth there were exactly 32 huge sharp teeth. They were similar in size to the teeth of a great white shark.

However, experts say that this is the Goliath tiger fish, which is one of the most terrible freshwater fish in the world. A deadly and larger version of the piranha. With its set of teeth, it can even attack crocodiles.

There are five known species tiger fish, but the largest lives exclusively in the Congo basin. The predator grows up to 180 centimeters in length, and gains weight up to 50 kilograms. Goliath feeds different fish smaller, sometimes eats small animals that have fallen into the water for lunch, and can attack humans.

Catching such a small fish is quite difficult. With her sharp teeth, she is able to bite into fishing line of any thickness. Therefore, for hunting Goliath, special steel leashes of increased strength are made.


However, contrary to popular belief, the 50-kilogram Goliaths that are found in some African rivers, in fact, do not belong to piranhas.

Bite force

How strong the piranha is and how scary her teeth are. This question was answered by an international team of scientists from Egypt, Brazil and the United States. Experts conducted an entire study that was aimed at measuring the bite force of an ordinary diamond piranha. Why was such an individual chosen? Because she is the largest piranha in the world, up to forty centimeters in length and weighing more than a kilogram.

For the sake of experiment, scientists fished out of the Amazon River several large species fish and began to poison them with dynamometers. During this study, by the way, experts risked their own fingers, since predators could freely bite off a person's limbs, instead of the device.

All about piranhas

One way or another, piranhas willingly took part in a special experiment. And bit the exclusively offered dynamometer. And the result of the study was impressive. The most powerful bite was three hundred twenty newtons. And this figure turned out to be the highest among animals. That is, the piranha bites all the most powerful among all the animals that now live or once lived on Earth.

According to scientists, even the famous tyrannosaurus, which lived many millions of years ago, did not have such a strong bite. And the only one who could match the strength of the bite with the piranha is its direct ancestor, who lived at the time Jurassic... It was an order of magnitude larger than the current fish. Its length was one meter and thirty centimeters. The fish weighed more than seventy kilograms.

And the bite force of this ancestor was approximately four and a half thousand newtons. If we go back to the tyrannosaurus, then the force of its bite was three times stronger, but this is taking into account the colossal difference in weight (the tyrannosaurus reached ten tons). Therefore, the palm tree in bite strength belongs only to the piranha.
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These fish have long been notorious. It is believed that by right. They are murderous and bloodthirsty. Their appetite is insatiable, a flock of piranhas quickly gnaws at the carcass of a pig or ram, dexterously ripping the meat from the bones.

However, not all types of piranhas are so scary. Some of them are harmless. How to find out what awaits in muddy water rivers? The Indians have their own marks.

The victim didn't stand a chance. One had only to start up the trout and the pool, where piranhas splashed, as flocks of enemies rushed at it. Not a second passed when one of the fish plucked a whole piece from the side of the trout. This was the signal. Encouraged by the hunting instinct, six other piranhas began to pull new pieces from the body of the trout.

Already her stomach was tortured. She twitched, trying to dodge, but another squad of assassins - there were now about twenty of them - grabbed the fugitive. A cloud of blood spread in the water, mixed with scraps of viscera. The trout was no longer visible, and the furious predators were all scurrying about in the muddy water, poking their noses and the invisible outline of a fish.

Suddenly, after some half a minute, the haze passed. The piranhas calmed down. The thirst to kill subsided. Their movements slowed down. There is no trace of a trout, a fish 30 cm long.

Common piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri)

Classics of the genre: vampire and piranha

If you happen to see piranha hunting in the movies, you will not forget this nightmare scene. At the mere sight of it, ancient fears arise in the human soul. Scraps of old legends revolve in my memory: “It happened on the Rio Negro. Or to Rio San Francisco, Xingu, Araguaya ... Father fell into the water ... "

From Alfred Brem to Igor Akimushkin, books about animals are full of stories about bloodthirsty piranhas. “Very often the crocodile flees in front of a wild flock of these fish ... Often these fish overpower even a bull or tapir ... Dobritshofer says that two Spanish soldiers ... were attacked and torn to pieces” (A Brem). These messages have become "classics of the genre." Every schoolboy knew from now on that the rivers of Brazil were teeming with killer fish.

Over time, schools of fish swam across from books and articles and movie theaters. Horror films about Amazonian predators include Piranha (1978), directed by Joe Dante and Piranha 2 (1981), directed by James Cameron.

Their plots are similar. A military base is located on the shore of a picturesque lake. Piranhas are raised there. By chance, predators fall into the waters of the lake and begin to eat tourists. And in general, the same "Jaws", only smaller in size, and maybe more in number.

Her name alone makes fans of these films shiver. And hardly any of the experts creepy stories Once in Brazil, he will dare to go into the waters of the river if he finds out that piranhas are found there.

The first reports of them began to arrive when the conquistadors reached Brazil and went deep into the forest. From these messages blood ran cold in my veins.

"Indians wounded cannonballs and musket bullets, screaming, fell from their canoes into the river, and ferocious piranhas gnawed at them to the bone, "wrote a Spanish monk who accompanied the seeker of gold and adventures Gonzalo Pizarro in 1553 during his predatory campaign and the lower Amazon. (Horrified by the cruelty of the fish, the pious monk did not think that the Spaniards, who fired cannons at the Indians, were no more merciful than the piranhas.)

Since then, the reputation of these fish has been fairly intimidating. They smelled blood better than sharks. Here is what the German traveler Karl-Ferdinand Appun wrote in 1859, who visited Guyana: warm waters river, as headlong jumped out of there and retreated to the shore, because he felt a piranha bite on his thigh - just where there was a wound from a mosquito bite, scratched by me to blood.

Reading such confessions, at some point you catch yourself thinking that piranhas are the fiends of hell, who escaped from there through an oversight and are now tyrannizing people and animals. There are no more terrible creatures in the world. An awkward step into the water - and dozens of razor-sharp teeth dig into the leg. Righteous God! One skeleton remained ... Is it all true?

Golden mean: flooded forest and great dry land

"It would be naive to demonize piranhas," writes German zoologist Wolfgang Schulte, author of the recently published book Piranhas. For about 30 years he studied these tropical predators and, like no one else, knows their two-faced nature: “But it would also be naive to portray them as harmless fish, completely harmless to humans. The truth lies in the middle. "

More than 30 species of piranhas live in South America. They feed mainly on small fish, shrimp, carrion and insects.

Only a few piranhas attack warm-blooded animals: among them, for example, red and black piranhas. But these fish are quick to kill. If a young heron, having fallen out of the nest, flops awkwardly into the water, "she is surrounded by a flock of piranhas," writes V. Schulte, "and seconds later, only feathers float on the water."

Piranhas in the aquarium are having lunch

He had seen such scenes himself, although it is not easy to scrutinize the river battles meticulously. Even experts can hardly distinguish certain types piranhas, since the color of fish changes dramatically with age.

However, the most aggressive piranhas usually feed only on carrion. “They rarely attack living mammals or humans. As a rule, this happens during the dry season, when the fish habitat is sharply narrowed and there is not enough prey. They also attack individuals with bleeding wounds, ”explains Schulte. If the attack succeeds and the victim spatters blood, all the piranhas scurrying nearby rush to her.

So, the aggressiveness of piranhas depends on the season. During the rainy season, the Amazon and Orinoco flood. The water level in them rises by about 15 meters. Rivers flood a vast area. Where a forest grew recently, boats float, and the rower, having lowered a pole into the water, can reach the crown of the tree. Where the birds sang, the fish are silent.

The flooded forests become a granary for piranhas. Their choice of food is great. Local Indians know this and, without fear, climb into the water. Even children splash in the river, scattering flocks of piranhas.

Piranha's teeth are the sharpest

Indian children swim in the piranha-infested Orinoco River

On the Orinoco fairway, teeming with "killer fish", fans of water skiing carelessly ride. Guides transporting tourists on boats do not hesitate to dive into the water, and right from under their feet tourists catch piranhas with fishing rods.

Miracles and more! Predators behave more modestly than trained lions. It's just that circus lions sometimes have an appetite.

In piranhas, the character changes when the great dry land sets in. Then the rivers turn into streams. Their level drops sharply. Everywhere you can see "lagoons" - lakes and even puddles in which fish, caimans and river dolphins who became captives. The piranhas, cut off from the river, do not have enough food - they fuss and rush.

They are now ready to bite anything that moves. Any living creatures that fell into the reservoir are immediately attacked. As soon as a cow or horse lowers its muzzle into the lake to drink, angry fish grab onto its lips - they pull out the meat in pieces. Often piranhas even kill each other.

“During a drought, not one local would not dare to swim in such a reservoir, ”writes Wolfgang Schulte.

Skeleton in waves of memory: the fisherman and the river

Harald Schultz, one of the best experts in the Amazon, wrote that during his 20 years in South America, he knew only seven people who were bitten by piranhas, and only one was seriously injured. It was Schultz, who lived among the Indian for a long time, who in his time came up with an anecdote, ridiculing the fears of Europeans, for whom death is hiding in the forests of the Amazon at every turn.

Until now, this anecdote wanders from one publication to another, often taken on faith.

“My father was then about 15 years old. The Indians were chasing him, and he, running away from them, jumped into a canoe, but the boat was flimsy. She turned over, and he had to start swimming. He jumped ashore, but here's the bad luck: he looks, and only a skeleton remains from him. But nothing more terrible happened to him. "

Most often, fishermen become victims of piranhas, and they themselves hunt for them. Indeed, in Brazil, piranhas are known as a delicacy. It is easy to catch them: you just need to throw a hook tied to a wire into the water (the piranha will have a bite of ordinary fishing line), and tug at them, depicting the fluttering of the victim.

Right there on the hook hangs a fish the size of a palm. If a fisherman attacks a flock of piranhas, then just have time to throw the hook: every minute you can pull out a fish.

In the passion of hunting, it is easy to turn into a victim yourself. The piranha thrown out of the water wriggles wildly and gasps for air with its teeth. By removing it from the hook, you can lose your finger. Even seemingly dead piranhas are dangerous: the fish seems to have stopped moving, but touching its teeth - the mouth will reflexively shrink, like a trap.

Red pacu (Piaractus brachypomus) herbivorous piranha

How many adventurers who reached the shores of the Amazon or its tributaries lost their fingers in the old days just because they decided to catch some fish for dinner. And so the legends were born.

Indeed, what is a piranha enemy at first glance? The fish seems ordinary-looking and even dull. Her weapon is "sheathed", but as soon as her mouth is opened, the impression changes. The mouth of the piranha is dotted with triangular, razor-sharp teeth that resemble daggers. They are positioned to fit like a zipper on your clothing.

The manner of hunting inherent in piranha is also unusual (by the way, sharks seem to behave): having stumbled upon a victim, she instantly rushes at it and cuts off a piece of meat; swallowing it, it immediately bites into the body again. Similarly, piranha attacks any prey.

Piranha species lunar metinnis (Metynnis luna Sore)

Flag piranha (Catoprion mento)

However, the piranha itself sometimes falls into someone else's mouth. In the rivers of America, she has many enemies: large predatory fish, caimans, herons, river dolphins and freshwater turtles matamata, which are also dangerous for humans. All of them, before swallowing a piranha, try to bite it more painfully in order to check if it is still alive.

"Swallowing a live piranha is like putting a working circular saw into the stomach," notes American journalist Roy Susser. Piranha is not the prophet Jonah, ready to patiently rest in the belly of a whale: it begins to bite and can kill the predator that caught it.

As already mentioned, the piranha has a superbly developed sense of smell - it smells blood in the water from afar. It is worth throwing the bloody bait into the water, as piranhas float from all ends of the river. However, we must not forget that the inhabitants of the Amazon and its tributaries can only rely on the sense of smell. The water in these rivers is so muddy that nothing can be seen ten centimeters away. All that remains is to sniff or listen to the prey. The sharper the sense of smell, the higher the chances of survival.

The piranha's hearing is also excellent. The wounded fish flounder desperately, generating high frequency waves. The piranhas catch them and swim towards the source of this sound.

However, piranhas cannot be called "insatiable killers" for a long time. The English zoologist Richard Fox placed 25 goldfish in a pool where two piranhas were swimming. He expected that the predators would soon kill all the victims, like wolves that entered the sheepfold.

However, piranhas killed only one goldfish for two per day, fraternally dividing it in half. They did not deal with the victims for nothing, but only killed to eat.

However, they did not want to miss the rich prey - they also did not want a school of gold fish. Therefore, on the very first day, the piranhas bit off their fins. Now helpless fish, unable to swim on their own, swayed in the water like floats - tail up, head down. They were a live food supply for the hunters. From day to day, they chose a new victim and, without haste, ate it.

Amazonian "wolves" - friends of the Indians

In their homeland, these predators are real orderlies of the rivers (remember that wolves are also called orderlies of the forest). When the rivers overflow during the rainy season and entire sections of the forest are hidden under water, many animals do not have time to escape. Thousands of corpses roll on the waves, threatening to poison all living things around with their poison and cause an epidemic. If it were not for the agility of the piranhas, eating these carcasses white to the bone, then people would die from seasonal epidemics and Brazil.

And not only seasonal! Twice a month, on a new moon and a full moon, a particularly strong ("syzygy") tide begins: the waters of the Atlantic rush into the interior of the continent, rushing up the river beds. The Amazon begins to flow backwards, spilling over from the banks.

If we consider that every second the Amazon dumps up to 200 thousand cubic meters of water into the ocean, it’s easy to imagine what wall of water is rolling back. The river flows for kilometers.

The consequences of these regular floods can be felt even 700 kilometers from the mouth of the Amazon. Small animals die from them again and again. Piranhas, like kites, clear the entire area of ​​carrion, which otherwise would rot for a long time in the water. In addition, piranhas exterminate injured and sick animals, making the populations of their victims healthy.

The pacu fish, a close relative of the piranha, is completely vegetarian - she is not a forest orderly, but a real forestry. With its powerful jaws, it gnaws nuts, helping their nucleoli to wake up in the soil. Swimming in the flooded forest, she eats the fruits, and then, far from the place of the meal, spews seeds, spreading them, as birds do.

Learning the habits of piranhas, one can only remember with bitterness that at one time the authorities of Brazil, falling under the terrible charm of legends, tried to put an end to these fish once and for all and poisoned them with various poisons, simultaneously exterminating other inhabitants of the rivers.

Well, in the twentieth century, a person experienced the "dizziness of progress." Without hesitation, we tried in our own way to establish balance in nature, destroying natural mechanisms and each time suffering from the consequences.

The natives of South America have long learned to get along with piranhas and even made them their helpers. Many Indian tribes living along the shores of the Amazon, in the rainy season, do not bother digging a grave to bury their relatives. They lower the dead body into the water, and only the piranhas, born gravediggers, will leave a little of the deceased.

The Guarani Indians wrap the deceased in a net with large meshes and hang them over the side of the boat, waiting for the fish to scrape off all the flesh. Then the skeleton is decorated with feathers and honorably hidden ("buried") in one of the huts.

Black-sided piranha (Serrasalmus humeralis)

Since time immemorial, piranha jaws have replaced scissors for the Indians. Making arrows, poisoned with curare poison, the Indians cut their arrowheads with piranha teeth. In the victim's wound, such an arrow broke off, the more correctly poisoning it.

There are many legends about piranhas. Villages and rivers in Brazil are named after them. In cities, however, "piranhas" are called girls of easy virtue, ready to rob their victim clean.

Nowadays, piranhas have also begun to be found in the reservoirs of Europe and America. I remember that some tabloid newspapers reported about the appearance of "killer fish" in the Moscow region. It's all about exotic lovers who, starting unusual fish, they can, fed up with "toys", throw them directly into a nearby pond or sewer.

However, there is no need to panic. The fate of piranhas in our climate is unenviable. These thermophilic animals quickly begin to get sick and die, and they will not survive the winter in open reservoirs. And they do not look like serial killers, as we have seen.

Today we will discuss fish, which is the most legendary among those dangerous to humans. The piranha fish just by its name already causes a feeling of "unpleasant goosebumps" along the back. The piranha family (Latin name Serrasalmidae), according to the latest data from the catalog of fish from the California Academy of Sciences, has sixteen genera and 95 species of freshwater fish, inhabitants of South American rivers and reservoirs living in the vicinity of the giant. Should all members of the Serrasalminae family be feared?

Not all piranhas have sharp teeth, so not all of them are predators, there are harmless vegetarians who have dull teeth, and therefore they are not dangerous for humans.

Such different piranhas

According to the descriptions of American scientists, the piranha fish is not afraid of anything and can attack any animal, regardless of its size. Any movement in the water or a splash on the water surface instantly attracts the attention of a school of these fish, and they rush in the direction of the source of such a signal. And the smell of blood, as well as for, is very attractive to piranhas, they immediately go to its source. Having reached the victim, in one or two minutes they almost instantly cleanse the animal's carcass to the skeleton.

Predatory and dangerous

As mentioned in the five-volume Animal Life, four species of piranha are considered particularly dangerous to humans. Red or common piranha is most often heard by most fish lovers and is even bred by aquarists. When they say - piranha fish, they mean this particular species, the Latin name of which changed slightly by the will of taxonomists:

  • According to the latest data from the fishbase, the correct scientific Latin name for the common piranha is Pygocentrus nattereri (synonym - Rooseveltiella nattereri, used in the book "Animal Life").
  • And the name Serrasalmus nattereri, which is often found in different sources, is considered incorrect here.
  • However, all these names refer to the piranha fish, which bears the name of Johann Natterer (naturalist and zoologist from Austria) and is one of the four most dangerous representatives the piranha family.

There is another type of dangerous piranha, which is often confused with the aforementioned common one. But this is a completely different fish, it is called the East Brazilian big piranha (scientifically - Pygocentrus Piraya, a synonym for Serrasalmus piraya). Let's take a closer look at these death-carrying piranhas.

Sharp teeth and bite technique

Predatory piranhas have large mouths and sharp teeth. In the photo of the common piranha fish, sharp triangular teeth are clearly visible. They have a flat shape and with their pointed tops they firmly dig even into the tough skin of their victims.

Consider the peculiarity of the structure of the teeth of the jaws of predatory piranhas:

  • The teeth on the upper jaw are smaller than those on the lower.
  • When the jaws close, the upper teeth fit into the spaces between the lower ones so evenly that not the slightest gap remains between the teeth.
  • The lower jaw protrudes slightly forward and the teeth on it are slightly bent back.

Such structural features oral apparatus enable the piranha's jaws to perform two types of actions:

  • By simply closing their jaws, their sharp teeth act like a razor or guillotine, cutting off a piece of meat.
  • If the tightly closed jaws move in the horizontal direction, in this situation the piranha fish is quite capable of biting off even such dense parts of the victim's body - bones and tendons.

An adult piranha can eat both a human finger and a stick.

More about red piranhas

The common piranha (synonym - red) Pygocentrus nattereri lives in almost all South American rivers, especially in central Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay.

Young fish are silvery with black spots. A black edging along the edge is clearly visible on the caudal fin. In adults, there are no black spots (they disappear with age), the body has an old silver color, covered with small golden sparkles.

The bright red color of the belly, anal and pectoral fins, as well as the lower part of the gill covers is present in adults. This feature gave the name - red piranhas. There are no obvious sex differences between females and males, so it is difficult to visually determine the sex of a piranha.

If you pay attention to the abdominal part of the piranha's body, then you can see that the keel, located between the pelvic fins and the anal, is covered with special sawtooth scales, with a jagged edge. Due to this structural feature, the piranha in America has the name sawfish.

Size, lifestyle and nutrition

The length of the red piranha is most often ten to fifteen centimeters, sometimes more (twenty to thirty centimeters). The maximum body length of this piranha, according to the fishbase, is 50 centimeters. The largest weight according to published data was 3.9 kilograms.

Being pelagic fish, natterera piranhas keep in schools and search for prey almost all the time. Young individuals are especially active, which most often form flocks for a collective search for food. Adult fish spend most of their time either in ambushes (among algae and behind snags) or standing in their favorite place, waiting for prey to ambush it. But they, too, often gather in flocks.

Adults (15-24 cm long) hunt mainly at dusk, at night or at dawn. Small fish (8-11 cm long) are active mainly during the day.

When attacked, a flock of piranhas swiftly rushes to prey and pulls out pieces of meat from the victim. Such a sight cannot be called pleasant. Prey surrounded by predators instantly disappears. The food for piranhas is primarily fish, but also birds in the water.

In the video, piranha fish swim in flocks, but they live at the exposition aquarium of the Primorsky Oceanarium (Vladivostok) and pose no danger to anyone.

Cannibalism is common among piranhas:

  • Another piranha fish is calmly eaten , which got on the hook of the fisherman.
  • During feeding, young people can bite off, for example, a piece of fin from a neighbor who is nearby.
Piranha and man

There is no information about the killing of people yet. But the fisherman can fall prey to piranha. These predators have very tasty meat, reminiscent of perch, so they catch it with a fishing rod. If you are not careful when removing the caught piranha from the hook, it can bite the fisherman's finger.

The name "piranha" translated from different languages South American peoples are translated: "evil fish" or "toothy devil".

Every year people suffer from encounters with this predator. Her teeth leave quite serious wounds that do not completely heal. The most favorable outcome after a piranha bite is a scar on the body. There are cases when there was a need to amputate a person's bitten finger, arm or leg.

How are piranhas useful?

Does nature need piranhas? After all, they bring so much trouble to people! There were attempts to completely destroy piranhas, for example, in Brazil they were even poisoned with poisons, but these fish are very hardy, and the attempt failed. Other inhabitants of reservoirs suffered in this experiment (it is strange that no one thought about this in advance). Each creature necessary for nature: the ecosystem in which it lives. This also applies to piranhas.

Like wolves in the forest killing old, sick and weak animals, piranhas are also orderlies of South American rivers. Their victims are primarily weakened individuals. By removing weak fish from populations, they contribute to these populations becoming stronger.

As for the people: you don't have to go into the river if you know that piranhas live there. With this approach, there will be no conflicts with a person.

Reproduction in nature and keeping in aquariums

Breeding piranha natterer in natural conditions occurs from March to August with an incubation period of ten days to a crescent, this is due to the temperature of the water. Large eggs in the amount of several thousand are deposited on the roots of trees dipped into the water. Fertility in piranhas is high. Parents guard the clutch of eggs.

Despite or due to the described cruel nature that piranhas demonstrate in nature, they are increasingly being kept in aquariums (home, office, public) as a particularly exotic fish. This is how aquarium fish piranhas, which require special care when caring. It is believed that in an aquarium, their natural aggressiveness is lost, and piranhas turn into shy and even a little nervous fish.

In small volumes, these fish demonstrate high degree aggression against each other and large proportional fish of other species. Small fish do not deserve the attention of well-fed piranhas, but if the piranhas are hungry, they will eat this little thing. Piranhas look more effective and advantageous in a separate large aquarium, where there are many free space for swimming and plants are planted (as shelters). Good water filtration is required. When kept in an aquarium, piranhas are fed with meat, dead fish, earthworms, bloodworms.

Large East Brasilian Piranhas

Pygocentrus piraya (Serrasalmus piraya) or the large East Brasilian piranha looks very similar to the common piranha and is very difficult for a layman to distinguish between them. Currently, taxonomists classify both species as one genus Pygocentrus. Look at the photo of this species of piranha fish.

The teeth of Pygocentrus piraya are as sharp as the common teeth, providing the same death grip. That's enough too large fish... In the book "The Life of Animals", its maximum size is indicated as sixty centimeters. But the latest updated data on the fishbase website gives a lower figure (34 centimeters), and greatest weight based on published data - just over 3 kilograms (3.2).

Unlike the common piranha, it is found only in the basin of one river in the eastern part of Brazil (Sao Francisco river). It is not in the Amazon.

Peaceful vegetarians

The piranha family is also represented by herbivorous species - completely peaceful vegetarians. These are the smallest and largest representatives of piranha. Dollar fish, belonging to two genera (and mileus), such as Metinnis spotted, are often bred in aquariums. They have molar teeth adapted to grinding food. The largest specimens of dollar fish do not exceed 15-18 centimeters.

The largest are the piranha families - reaching up to 108 centimeters in length (brown pacu) are also often bred in aquariums.

These big fish with curious eyes, teeth resemble humans and adults are mostly vegetarians. They eat fruits that fall into water and other plant foods.