piranha By Dylan Cox

Appearance There are a lot of species piranhas they belong to the genera Phytocentric and Serrasalmus. They reduce by laying eggs. Anatomy Piranhas range in color from yellow to steel gray to bluish to red and almost black. They range ½ to 2 feet long.

habitat Piranhas are freshwater fish and found primarily in South America in the Amazon Basin The Orinoco River and east of the Andes Mountains. They can inhabit diverse locations such as lakes, tributaries, wetlands and creeks. Typically ,piranhas in the wild live only in South America this is their habitat. They inhabit rivers and basins connected to the ocean, particularly the Amazon the Guyana, the Essquibo and other coastal rivers. They’re common in northeastern Brazil

Food Some piranhas do occasionally eat small mammals, and with humans, it’s unusually when the unfortunate animal is already dead or really injured. A typical piranha diet consists of insects, other fish, worms and carrion This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Enemies and Defenses Despite it’s feared nature, the piranha actually has a number of predators in the wild, including humans that hunt piranha for food, as river dolphins, crocodiles, turtles, birds and large fish. When a enemy comes at a red belly piranha in makes a barking sound.

Interesting Facts Their razer sharp teeth can tear chunks of flesh from creatures many times their size. A piranhas bite force is up to 1,240 to 4,749 Newtons. In the 1950s a scientist proposed that a common of piranhas and pacus had two rows of teeth, eventually merged into a single row.

Sources http/Defengers.org http/national geographickids.org http/piranha world This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA