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Piaractus brachypomus (Cuvier, 1818)

Pirapitinga
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Piaractus brachypomus
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Papua New Guinea country information

Common names: [No common name]
Occurrence: introduced
Salinity: freshwater
Abundance: | Ref:
Importance: | Ref:
Aquaculture: | Ref:
Regulations: | Ref:
Uses: no uses
Comments: The fish originally entered Malaysia from Brazil, possibly via Taiwan. The genetic composition of the stock is dubious and is possibly already subject to in-breeding. A total of 14,511 individuals were released in 9 locations (remote lakes in the lower and middle Sepik, Bunapas, in the lower and middle Ramu and Brahman area (Ref. 37808). Started attacking other fishes in the Sepik and Ramu rivers in 1999 when their main food, insects became scarce. There are also reports on human attacks. Causes ecological imbalance by killing local fish and wiping out eggs and fry (Ref. 39336).
National Checklist:
Country Information: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/pp.html
National Fisheries Authority: http://www.spc.org.nc/coastfish/Countries/PNG/png.htm
Occurrences: Occurrences Point map
Main Ref: Dau, J., 2001
National Database:

Common names from other countries

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Characiformes (Characins) > Serrasalmidae (Piranhas and pacus) > Colossomatinae
Etymology: Piaractus: Greek, piar = fat, the side with grease of a body + Greek, aktos , ago = to carry.
  More on author: Cuvier.

Issue
See Loubens & Panfili (2001:51) for growth biology.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; pelagic; pH range: 4.8 - 6.8; dH range: ? - 15.   Tropical; 23°C - 28°C (Ref. 2060); 23°N - 11°S

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

South America: Amazon and Orinoco River basins (Ref. 39031). Reported from Argentina (Ref. 9086).

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?, range 52 - ? cm
Max length : 88.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 40637); max. published weight: 25.0 kg (Ref. 2060); max. reported age: 28 years (Ref. 39139)

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Juveniles mimic Serrasalmus nattereri. Feeds on insects and decaying plants (Ref. 32894). Possesses powerful dentition that can cause serious bites (Ref. 4537). An important foodfish (Ref. 12202).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturities | Reproduction | Spawnings | Egg(s) | Fecundities | Larvae

Assuming standard charicid mode of reproduction. Replace ASAP.

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Ortega, H. and R.P. Vari, 1986. Annotated checklist of the freshwater fishes of Peru. Smithson. Contrib. Zool. (437):1-25. (Ref. 6329)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 21 December 2020

CITES (Ref. 128078)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Traumatogenic




Human uses

Fisheries: minor commercial; aquaculture: commercial; aquarium: commercial
FAO(Aquaculture systems: production; Fisheries: production; publication : search) | FishSource |

More information

Trophic ecology
Food items
Diet compositions
Food consumptions
Food rations
Predators
Ecology
Ecology
Home ranges
Population dynamics
Growths
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversions
Recruitments
Abundances
Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturities
Fecundities
Spawnings
Spawning aggregations
Egg(s)
Egg developments
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Anatomy
Gill areas
Brains
Otoliths
Physiology
Body compositions
Nutrients
Oxygen consumptions
Swimming type
Swimming speeds
Visual pigment(s)
Fish sounds
Diseases / Parasites
Toxicities (LC50s)
Genetics
Genetics
Electrophoreses
Heritabilities
Human related
Aquaculture systems
Aquaculture profiles
Strains
Ciguatera cases
Stamps, coins, misc.
Outreach
Collaborators
References
References

Tools

Special reports

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Internet sources

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.7500   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.03162 (0.02336 - 0.04281), b=2.99 (2.90 - 3.08), in cm Total Length, based on LWR estimates for this species (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  2.5   ±0.22 se; based on food items.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  Low, minimum population doubling time 4.5 - 14 years (tm=7; tmax=28).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  High vulnerability (55 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Unknown.