New Species of Giant Air-Breathing Fish

Freshwater Species of the Week

Water Currents previously reported on Donald Stewart‘s ongoing efforts to reclassify a giant Amazonian fish as representing several distinct species. The work of the fish biologist at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) is supported in part by National Geographic.

Stewart’s latest work has just been published in the journalCopeia, and marks official identification of Arapaima leptosoma,the first entirely new species of arapaima since 1847.

Among the world’s largest freshwater fish, arapaimas live in tropical South America, especially Brazil and Guyana. They can grow up to 10 feet (3 meters) long and weigh 440 pounds (200 kilograms). They breathe air through a primitive lung, and tend to live in oxygen-poor backwaters.

Arapaimas have long been an important food source for Amazonian peoples. They continue to be hunted and biologists have concerns about their status, although they are not endangered.

Getting the new species named is important “because it brings attention to the diversity of arapaimas that is out there and that needs to be collected and studied,” said Stewart. “Hopefully it will get more people in Brazil looking more closely at what’s swimming around out there.”
Read more at NG

We keep finding new species all the time. The air breathing aspect is real interesting to me.

But WOW ten feet I guess this one will not be on river monsters but if I saw this swimming I would still get out.

reply to post by Grimpachi


S&F. There's much more to discover down there.

How Much We Don't Know About the Ocean

reply to post by Grimpachi


Kinda looks like an eel with an Oscar pushing it.
Always fun to see that we don't quite know what all exists on this planet. Thank you for sharing.

We have those in S.E.Asia and as the article says they have a primitive lung which allows them to live in oxygen poor water. I have eaten them before and they are served at many restaurants... They are also kept as a fish in decorative ponds until they reach a certain length and then off to the dinner table.

Its almost a snake with fins.

reply to post by 727Sky


That's interesting. From South America to SE Asia. Are you sure the ones you have are not a different species?

They are freshwater so that is a hell of a leap.

reply to post by Grimpachi


I have seen the fish swimming and flayed but to be sure I asked my resident fish expert and she gave me it's name in her language and agreed they could get very big, breathe air, and were good to eat...They call them Pbla-shadow -1sp the alphabet is not the same as ours so I am going by the sound only ภาษาไทย.. vocabulary includes many words from Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer all very, very, old spoken and written languages in S.E. Asia.

Different Species? Dunno only going by looks and the lung thing... My wife immediately knew it's name and that it could gulp air.... she is a fish eater as her mother before her.. hahahah

reply to post by Grimpachi


This is wonderful! It always amazes me when a new species is found, considering how long we have been here!
Thanks for the post! S & F

That fish looks like two different species copulated.

The brown ( or red-purplish, I guess... lol ) one in the back, and the grey sturgeon like one as the front part... dirty, dirty nature...

A fish with lungs... even if tiny, it is really particular, but apparently, it gives them the advantage in low-filled oxygen waters... Life adapts to pretty much anything.

We know more about space then we do about the seas. We are going to need to find more food sources especially w/the plight of the honeybee and the tuna (wait until China starts digging the sushi)

SEGUE: While out fishing this evening | saw a 12'- 14' Alligator Gar and it pulled upside My boat and My dogs were going bonkers. Then it turned and it's snout came out of the water and it was as long as My arm. These things look even more prehistoric (from what we've been lied to) than the Alligator.

reply to post by 727Sky


Well the article does say there are at least 5 species of this fish it doesn't say they are all from the same local. You should take a picture or something and submit it for confirmation. Like I said spanning that distance is quite something.

We can add them to this list along with crabs and Austrillian Lung Fish, which can breathe both air and water.

I can smell a cheap hollywood action movie think anaconda but lamer

Cool find but

reply to post by Grimpachi


Jeremy Wade has done a episode on these fish. i love that show and watch it all the time.

Jeremy Wade hooks an enormous Arapaima

it's not a new species if the native south americans have been catching and eating them for a long time like the article says. just means that scientists didn't know about them.

both the videos and the one below are dated back in june 2012. so the videos are even older than that.

here is a farm in the amazon.

Arapaima Farm

I would love to eat one of those. I bet they taste close to walleye or pike, but then again it might taste like old goat, or chicken.

Grimpachi
reply to post by 727Sky

 

That's interesting. From South America to SE Asia. Are you sure the ones you have are not a different species?

They are freshwater so that is a hell of a leap.

Your so called asian ones are a smaller superficial look alike called arrowana. Aripaima are nothing new. The authors claim is bogus.A subspecies at best. I have kept aripaima gigas myself. Send you broke feeding them.

reply to post by 13th Zodiac

The authors claim is bogus.A subspecies at best.

You know that little link down at the bottom of the OP when you click on it you can then read more about the subject. It would probably keep you from making uninformed statements like the one you just made.

I feel like you just did the same thing a good many people did in this thread.learning lesson

Grimpachi
reply to post by 13th Zodiac

 

The authors claim is bogus.A subspecies at best.

You know that little link down at the bottom of the OP when you click on it you can then read more about the subject. It would probably keep you from making uninformed statements like the one you just made.

I feel like you just did the same thing a good many people did in this thread.learning lesson

Really, do you know my field and my work??? Can't be bothered convicing you otherwise. You are very impressional. Why is this in the crypto section ?

reply to post by 13th Zodiac


I don't know your field of work but I do know you didn't read the article otherwise you wouldn't have been off on a tangent like you did. Since you can't be bothered to click on it I will quote some of it here.

For a century and a half, the prevailing view among scientists had been that there was only one species of arapaima, but Stewart has shown that there are actually at least five. In March, he published a paper that renamed a species of arapaima that had been suspected in the 1800s, before scientists decided to roll it up into one species.

The newest species, Arapaima leptosoma, had not been suspected before. It is more slender than other arapaimas (it’s name leptosoma is a reference to this characteristic).

Stewart explained that the new species also has a horizontal black bar on the side of its head, which is a unique series of sensory organs.

The new species was described from a specimen kept at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia in Manaus, Brazil. That animal had been collected in 2001 near the confluence of the Solimões and Purus rivers in Amazonas State, Brazil.

So either you want to state something the article already said trying to look smart or you couldn't be bothered to read further.

reply to post by Grimpachi


I am on your side as I also read/saw the article on Yahoo about the classification of this new species.

My wife has never seen a 200 kilo one but many the same size as the photo with the man.

As I mentioned in my original post based on looks and the anatomical description we have the cousin or brother from another mother in S.E. Asia.. Are they the same genetically speaking I have no idea... But they certainly look like the same critter and maybe taste the same; maybe you cannot judge a book by the cover after all?