Personal Animal Research Paper: Piranha
About Piranha's, Having a Piranha as a Pet
Did you know that there are at least twenty-five different kinds of piranhas? Most have deep flat bodies, range in color from olive green to blue black, and have red orange bellies.
The most dangerous of the species have large very sharp teeth, the upper and lower set which fit perfectly together. These remarkable fishes have other characteristics which enhance their biting ability. Their lower jaws are sturdy and they swing shut at an angle that gives maximum leverage. Their deep flat bodies which offer resistance when swung sideways through the water add to the leverage. Incredibly large muscles are attached to the jaws. The muscles are so sturdy that when you that when you look down a large specimens throat it barely looks like enough room to swallow. When the fish clamps down on a victim it grabs firmly and twists its body violently until a piece is torn loose. In a word, the piranha is the most efficient biting machine. Every body part seems to make a contribution to this function. Fishing for the piranha in the Guyanas upper Abary River can be very exciting but very dangerous. The author of Unusual Aquarium Fishes, Alan Mark Fletcher, was using special heavy shanked steel fish hooks and twice piranhas bit completely through the strong fish hooks. A man with a pair of pliers would have a hard time snipping through the heavy shanked hooks. This author has taken many daring risks such as having himself photographed holding a live piranha in the exact spot where it had just been caught.
While in some places the piranha are extremely dangerous, in others its quite harmless most of the time. In the upper Amazon River, Indian children swim and play in the waters that teems with the fish. Yet in Guyanas Abary River one takes a great risk to place his hands in the water. Some species of the piranha family, called the Candiru, attach themselves by means of suction, for which their mouths are adapted. They fasten themselves on their victim and then painlessly cut the skin and gorge themselves in its blood.
Any of the fish brought to the market at Manaos often show many wounds inflicted by the piranha. Below the first fall in the Maderia River, it is difficult to take a catfish which has...