Arapaima
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The arapaima opens its large mouth to suck in nearby food.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Arapaima
- Scientific name
- Arapaima gigas
- Japanese name
- ピラルク
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Order
- Osteoglossiformes
- Family
- Arapaimidae
- Genus
- Arapaima
Where the name “Arapaima” comes from
Pirarucu comes from a Tupi word meaning roughly “red fish”.
Smithsonian National ZooA very large freshwater fish that lives in the Amazon River basin of South America.
Its huge body and hard, bony scales help protect it from predators.
It mainly eats other fish. Because it must come up to breathe air, it usually looks for food near the top of the water.
How the Arapaima lives
They use their fins to dig nests in sand and lay eggs during the dry season. The eggs hatch at the beginning of the rainy season. When predators approach, the male carries the young in his mouth to another place.
Smithsonian National ZooBasic data
- Size
- up to 450 cm
- Weight
- up to 200 kg
- Diet
- Fish
- Range
- Amazon River Basin in South America
Where the Arapaima 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
- ピラルク
- 简体中文
- 巨骨舌鱼
- 繁體中文
- 象魚
- 한국어
- 피라루크
- Español
- Paiche
- Français
- Arapaïma
- Deutsch
- Piracurù
- Português (Brasil)
- Pirarucu
- Italiano
- Arapaima
- العربية
- أربيمة عملاقة
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Arapaima raksasa
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá hải tượng long
- Русский
- Арапаима
- Türkçe
- Arapayma
- ไทย
- ปลาอะราไพม่า
- বাংলা
- জলদানব আরাপাইমা
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 — ピラルクChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Arapaima gigasChecked: 2026-11-03
- Smithsonian National Zoo — ArapaimaChecked: 2026-11-05
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.
Report a mistakeRELATIVES
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