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PEARLFISH PRESS
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Aquarium Fishes of the World
1999
Sample texts:
red-bellied piranha; red
piranha
Serrasalmus natterreri (Kner, 1860)
Family: Characidae
South America; Amazon, Orinoco, and Parana basins
To 12 inches.
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This is the legendary man-eating fish of South America, a title
shared with several other species in the characid subfamily Serrasalminae.
As is sometimes the problem with legend, it is difficult for
persons with no firsthand experience collecting in piranha habitats
to separate fact from prevailing fiction. Indeed, the danger
posed by piranhas in the wild has been a matter of debate. Well
fed individuals are reputed not to attack human swimmers, while
those cut off from a sufficient supply of fishes and other natural
foods (for example, by receding flood waters) are a recognized
threat to humans and other animals. Additionally, the scent of
blood is said to provoke attacks. With piranhas' powerful jaws
lined with razor-sharp teeth, such an attack can reduce a large
animal to a skeleton in a matter of minutes. It is generally
accepted than even well fed individuals in the artificial confines
of aquaria present a potential danger to careless handlers--large
adults, such as the foot-long pictured specimen, are quite capable
of removing an errant finger!--so that often cited reports of
native South Americans routinely swimming unmolested in piranha-infested
waters should not breed complacency among aquarists. While small
specimens may be housed together if adequately fed, larger fish
should be kept singly in other than the spacious tanks of public
aquaria. Living and cut fish, as well as other meaty foods, will
maintain S. natterreri in good health. A very similar
and equally vicious species, S. piraya, is distinguished
by its frayed adipose fin. Many other species in this subfamily
are quite harmless. The possibility of dangerous species such
as S. natterreri becoming established in southern US waters
is another subject of debate, and fear of same has spawned legislation
and threat of legislation restricting sales of piranhas and related
species. There is at least one report in the scientific literature
of a reproducing population of a Serrasalmus species having
become established in southern Florida, so such fears are not
entirely without basis.
Nothobranchius kirki Jubb, 1969
Family: Aplocheilidae
Ephemeral waters in the Lakes Chilwa and Malawi basins, East
Africa.
To 1 1/4 inches.
Approximately forty nominal species of the killifish genus Nothobranchius
inhabit temporary bodies of water in eastern and central Africa.
The impermanence of Nothobranchius habitats, governed
by seasonal fluctuations in rainfall, has produced adaptations
in the eggs of these and other annual killifish species that
allow the developing embryos to avoid desiccation and to enter
a protracted state of arrested development (diapause) during
the period when these habitats become completely dry and all
adult fish perish. These resting eggs hatch upon subsequent refilling
of the habitats with ensuing seasonal rains. The small grassland
pools inhabited by N. kirki are often turbid and fouled
with the excrement of terrestrial animals--conditions which may
favor the evolutionary development of the bright colors exhibited
by males of most Nothobranchius species. Because of the
special conditions under which the eggs of annual killifishes
must be incubated, as well as the abbreviated life span and overall
unsuitability of these fishes for mixed-species aquaria, fishes
such a N. kirki are kept solely by killifish specialists,
and are not generally available in the aquarium trade. This species
has no common name.
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