Teeth like a saw
Its teeth are triangular, razor sharp and lock together. It replaces them a quarter of the mouth at a time.
Amazon river
Red-bellied piranha
Pygocentrus nattereri
A deep-bodied, silvery fish with a red belly, a blunt face and a mouthful of triangular teeth.
- Size
- About 20 to 30cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rivers and lakes of the Amazon basin
Darts after you with quick flicks. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Piranha
Good to know
Six things about the piranha
Not man-eaters
Stories of piranhas stripping a cow in minutes are mostly tall tales. They very rarely bite people.
Cleaning up
They eat fish, insects, seeds and fruit, and a lot of what they eat is already dead.
Safety in numbers
They swim in shoals to protect themselves from dolphins, caimans and big birds.
They bark
A piranha makes a barking sound, by drumming on its swim bladder, to warn others off.
Teeth as tools
Amazon peoples have long used piranha jaws as scissors and blades.
The real thing
Photos of the piranha
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Piranhas are caught from canoes on tours all over the Amazon. In clear water you may see a shoal of red bellies turning in the sun.
How to help
Piranhas are plentiful. Like all river fish, they depend on clean water and on the forest that floods each year.
Keep going