Description: The Silver arowana has a long body with large shiny silver scales, a whisker tactile organ near the mouth and a tapered tail with the dorsal and anal fins extending all the way to the small caudal fin. It is in the family of bony-tongued fish (has a tongue equipped with sharp, bony teeth).
Size: It can grow to a maximum length of 47 inches (120 cm), in the wild.
Behavior: It jumps out of the water to capture its prey while swimming near the water surface. Swims rather snake-like.
Diet: Their diet consists of crustaceans, insects, small fish and other animals that float on the water surface.
Senses: They have two great sensory devices called barbels located at the tip of the lower jaw which they use to sense and capture their prey on the surface of the water, even in total darkness. They also use their sense of sight, which is excellent, to locate prey.
Communication: They communicate with the sensory barbels and electrical signals produced by certain muscles.
Reproduction: When spawning occurs they swim around in circles and the female will lay between 80-250 orange eggs and the male will then fertilize them. After fertilization, the male scoops the eggs
up into his mouth where they remain until they hatch (mouthbrooder).
Habitat/range: The Silver arowana inhabits slow moving to still tributaries, backwaters and lagoons in the Amazon Basin, Rupununi and Essequibo systems of the Guianas.
Status: Listed as Least Concern on IUCN Red List.