Red-bellied piranha
Amazing fact
The sharp teeth of red-bellied piranhas are usually hidden beneath thick lips.
Smithsonian National Zoo
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The sharp teeth of red-bellied piranhas are usually hidden beneath thick lips.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Red-bellied piranha
- Scientific name
- Pygocentrus nattereri
- Japanese name
- ピラニア・ナッテリー
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Order
- Characiformes
- Family
- Serrasalmidae
- Genus
- Pygocentrus
It belongs to the piranha group and is sometimes simply called "piranha".
A fish that lives in rivers of South America, such as the Amazon.
Its belly is reddish orange, and its back is silvery gray.
Groups hide among water plants to wait for prey, then chase fish and eat them.
How the Red-bellied piranha lives
Smaller fish search for food by day, while larger fish tend to be more active at dawn and dusk. Fins bitten from the tails of larger fish make up a good part of their diet. They also sometimes eat figs and other ripe fruit. During courtship, they swim in circles.
Smithsonian National ZooBasic data
- Diet
- Fins, scales, fish, insects, snails and plants
- Range
- South America
Where the Red-bellied piranha has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ピラニア・ナッテリー
- 简体中文
- 纳氏臀点脂鲤
- 繁體中文
- 納氏臀點脂鯉
- 한국어
- 붉은배피라냐
- Español
- Coicoa
- Français
- Piranha rouge
- Deutsch
- Natterers Sägesalmler
- Português (Brasil)
- Piranha-vermelha
- Italiano
- Piranha rosso
- العربية
- بيرانا حمراء البطن
- Tiếng Việt
- Piranha bụng đỏ
- Русский
- Обыкновенная пиранья
- Türkçe
- Kırmızı karınlı pirana
- বাংলা
- লাল পিরানহা
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ピラニアChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Pygocentrus nattereriChecked: 2026-11-03
- Smithsonian National Zoo — Red-bellied piranhaChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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