Arowana
| Arowana | ||||||||||||
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Arowana ( Osteoglossum bicirrhosum ) |
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| Osteoglossum bicirrhosum | ||||||||||||
| ( Cuvier , 1829) |
The Arowana ( Osteoglossum bicirrhosum ), also silver fork beard , Aruanã or Arahuana called, is a South American freshwater - predator of the genus Osteoglossum from the family of arowana (Osteoglossidae).
distribution
The fish lives in the Amazon and Araguaia rivers , as well as in Rupununi in southern Guyana and in Oyapock on the border between French Guiana and Brazil .
features
The fish have an elongated, band-shaped body that is strongly compressed on the sides and covered with large scales, which can be up to 1.20 meters long. The mouth is very large and above all. At the end of the lower jaw are two bluish or greenish barbels . The dorsal and anal fin are very long and extend to the caudal fin. Adult fish are silvery, juvenile fish are greenish-yellow.
Way of life
Arowanas prefer to stay in the heavily overgrown oxbow lakes of the rivers. They feed on insects , small frogs and lizards . They can reach their prey sitting on branches protruding above the water by deliberately jumping up to two meters in height. Arowanas are mouthbrooders , after laying eggs in a sand pit, the male takes the eggs, which are more than 1.5 centimeters in size, into their mouths. The young leave the mouth after 50 to 60 days and are then ten centimeters long.
Web links
- Arowana on Fishbase.org (English)
literature
- Hans A. Baensch , Rüdiger Riehl : Aquariums Atlas . 1st volume. Mergus Verlag, Melle 1997, ISBN 3-88244-101-1 .
- Joseph S. Nelson , Fishes of the World . John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
- Ronny Wartenberg, "Arowana". Degen Mediahouse, 2013, ISBN 978-3-942 596-07-7 ,