General Information

When a school of piranha are in a feeding frenzy, the water appears to boil and churn red with blood. They attack with such ferocity that they strip an animal of its flesh within a matter of minutes, even taking bites out of each other in the process.

Physical Description

Piranhas range in color from yellow, steel-gray, bluish, partly red, to almost black. They vary in length from 1/2 to 2 feet long. Piranhas have a bulldog-like face with a very large lower jaw and many razor-sharp teeth. The teeth are replaceable - when one is broken off, a new one grows in its place.

Diet

Piranhas are opportunistic carnivores. They eat aquatic and land animals that are in the water. Some of their prey include fish, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, birds, lizards, amphibians, rodents, and carrion that they find. These fish are diurnal, mostly active during the day.

Habitat

Piranhas are found only in the Amazon basin, in the Orinoco, in rivers of the Guyanas, in the Paraguay-Paraná, and in the São Francisco River systems. Some species of piranha have extremely broad geographic ranges, occurring in more major basins, while certain others appear to have much more limited distributions.

Reproduction

When it is time for mating, the color of both piranhas will darken and they will seclude themselves, finding a spot to lay hundreds of tiny orange eggs. The eggs hatch two to three days after and the parents aggressively protect their newborns. The babies are immediately carnivorous and will eat tiny crustaceans, fruits, seeds, and aquatic plants until they grow to be 1.5 inches in length and begin feeding on flesh or fish that get too close.