A piranha movie#

In the wild, piranhas have a life span of up to 25 years. It is a rather descriptive name considering the teeth and mouth of the piranha. The word ‘piranha’ actually means “fish tooth” in Amazonian indigenous languages. They will tear wounded wild fowl to pieces and bite off the tails of big fish as they grow exhausted when fighting after being hooked.” 4. They will snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water they mutilate swimmers-in every river town in Paraguay there are men who have been thus mutilated they will rend and devour alive any wounded man or beast for blood in the water excites them to madness. But the piranhas habitually attack things much larger than themselves. Even the most formidable fish, the sharks or the barracudas, usually attack things smaller than themselves. “They are the most ferocious fish in the world. He subsequently wrote about the Piranha in his book ‘Through the Brazilian Wilderness’. Theodore Roosevelt is thought to be somewhat to blame for their reputation.Īfter traveling to South America in 1913, the locals are said to have put on a show for him, by feeding a dead cow to a large group of hungry piranha. Piranha need warm water to survive.Īs opposed to requiring warm blood – thanks to the world of horror movies – piranha can’t live in water that is less than 54-degrees F. The way in which their jaws are designed leave piranhas with a very distinct under bite, which means the bottom row of teeth are always exposed.

They will lose teeth throughout their lifetime and they will be replaced. The piranha has a single row of triangular teeth that are razor sharp. They have razor sharp teeth, with tooth enamel structure similar to that of sharks. Should a mammal or bird fall into piranha infested waters, these busy little fish will devour them in a group, but this isn’t a frequent occurrence. The diet of the piranha usually consists of fish, snails, other aquatic animals, plants, seeds and fruit. Piranha II – The Spawning (1981) and Piranha 3D (2010) pretty much scared anyone who wasn’t affected by Jaws.

A piranha movie#

The 1978 movie titled simply “Piranha” got it all started and even had two sequels that followed. Some species are also thought to be vegetarian. Thanks to the work of Hollywood, many seem to believe that piranhas have an insatiable diet for blood, but as it turns out, they are actually omnivores – they eat animals and plants. This provides a form of camouflage in the muddy waters these fish live in. The famous red-bellied piranha species has a silver colored body that is covered in red patches, but other piranha can have shades of yellow, green and black. The average size of a piranha is 6 to 10-inches in length however, some have been recorded to measure up to 20-inches in length. There are over 20 different species found in the Amazon river alone. However, the exact number is unknown, debated and not yet scientifically proven. There is believed to be somewhere between 30 and 60 different piranha species.

They are infamous for their razor sharp teeth and extremely powerful jaws.ĭepends On Species – Yellow, Silver-Grey, Red, BlackĬrocodiles, Caimans, River Dolphin, Turtles, Birds & Other Larger Fish. Some have been found to inhabit warm bodies of water in North America and in the Kaptai Lake in Bangladesh. Known as a ferocious freshwater fish, the Piranha is a small to medium size fish native to lakes and rivers in South America.