The red-bellied piranha is a fish that lives in rivers in South America. Its belly is red. Its gray body is flecked with silver. It has rows of sharp teeth. A piranha replaces its teeth through life, one side of the jaw at a time, so it can keep feeding. The teeth in its rows are replaced as it lives.
A red-bellied piranha grows to about a foot long. The Los Angeles Zoo says about 12 inches. It can weigh up to 4 pounds, or 1.81 kilograms. That is the weight given at the National Zoo and the Los Angeles Zoo. A red-bellied piranha can also live about 10 years. It likes warm water, about 25 degrees Celsius.
What do piranhas really eat? Red-bellied piranhas eat other fish, and also shrimp and worms. They eat insects too. In the wild, a good portion of their food is fins nipped from the tails of larger fish. You may have heard that piranhas only eat meat. In fact, red-bellied piranhas also eat plants and fruit. They are also scavengers in the Amazon basin.
Red-bellied piranhas live in big groups called shoals. They live in the Amazon River basin. You may have heard that piranhas hunt in packs. In fact, they gather in groups for protection rather than hunting their prey in packs. They tend to travel in schools of 20 or more. A shoal is a safe way for a piranha to live.
Male red-bellied piranhas build nests in the mud and sand at the bottom of the water. The eggs are laid in bunches. The bunches are stuck to plants growing under the water. Nests and eggs are part of life in the river, and a female can lay thousands of eggs in this way.
Words to know
- shoals: fish groups
- scavengers: leftover eaters
- basin: river land
- jaw: mouth bone
The short version
The red-bellied piranha is a fish that lives in rivers in South America. It has rows of sharp teeth that are replaced through its life. It eats other fish, insects, worms, plants and fruit, and it gathers in shoals for protection.
Quick facts
- The red-bellied piranha is a fish that lives in rivers in South America.
- A piranha replaces its teeth through life, one side of the jaw at a time.
- Red-bellied piranhas gather in shoals for protection.
- A red-bellied piranha can live about 10 years.
What do red-bellied piranhas eat?
Red-bellied piranhas eat other fish, and also shrimp and worms. They eat insects, fins nipped from the tails of larger fish, plants and fruit. They are also scavengers in the Amazon basin.
Do red-bellied piranhas hunt in packs?
No. Red-bellied piranhas gather in groups for protection rather than hunting their prey in packs. They tend to travel in schools of 20 or more.
