Habitat

• This area receives 6-10 ft of rain per year

• There are over 60,000 plant species in the Amazon basin, some include orchids, pitcher plants, and strangler figs.

• Temperatures range from a high of 90 degrees F during the day to 79 degrees F at night.  

• Are not found in sediment laden water or water with strong currents 

Distribution

• Arapaima's live in the rainforest rivers of South American Amazon basin, and surrounding water bodies. 

• Arapaimas are considered invasive in places like  India when they escaped from aquaculture ponds  after floods in 2018

Diet

• Omnivorious 

• fruits, worms, insects, mollusks, crusteaceans 

• Fish, amphibians, reptiles, and even aquatic birds 

• Feed close to the surface 

• Couldn't find how often they eat

• Arapaima's gulp to catch food, and are also known to leap out of the water to catch it. They also do this when they feel threated, and have killed people by slamming into them.

Cause of Death

• Young Arapaima have many predators, like piranha, but adults are only preyed on buy humans and spectacled caiman

• Sexual competition rarely leads to death

• No noteable deseases

• can die if the water is too cold 

Competition

• Arapaima are gernally agreeive fish, so competition is there but not always for a reason. 

• Competition is low with other animals because they are generally at the top of the food chain. 

• compete over food 

• while there are invasive species in the Amazon River basin, they are not significantly affected. 

IUCN

• endangered, but is now bouncing back 

• 330,000 in arapaima in Brazil

• Population is becoming stable 

Human Impact

• The major impact of humans is overfishing, which dwindleed their population.

• Arapaima conserve flood plains, without them, these areas would be left vulnerable 

• Natives of Brazil have hunted arapaima for an unknown amount of time, but europeans have hunted them since the 1800's

• Fishing strategies have been implemented to stop overfhsing of the Arapaima