Piraiba

Brachyplatystoma filamentosum

Also known as Piraiba catfish, Kumakuma, Lau-lau, Goliath catfish

FreshwaterFish

Piraiba (Brachyplatystoma filamentosum) — タウナギ · CC0

Care at a glance

Temperature: 72–82°F (22–28°C)
pH: 6.0–7.5
Adult size: 118.1 in (300 cm)
Minimum tank: 2,642 gal (10,000 L)
Temperament: Aggressive
Social behavior: Solitary
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Difficult
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Very rare
Origin: Native to the Amazon and Orinoco river basins of South America.
Family: Pimelodidae

Overview

This is one of the ultimate tank busters, a fish that reaches the size of a person and keeps growing, so it is genuinely unsuitable for private keeping and belongs only in the largest public aquariums, needing volumes measured in many thousands of liters. It is a fast, aggressive open-water predator that will eat almost any companion, so it is housed alone. Juveniles are sometimes sold cheaply and cute, which is a serious trap given the adult size. Do not take one on without an aquarium the size of a swimming pool.

In the wild

The piraiba is one of the largest fish in the Amazon and Orinoco, patrolling the deep channels of big rivers and undertaking long migrations to spawn. It is a silvery, powerful open-water predator that hunts other fish across huge distances. Nothing about a home aquarium suits it: it needs the volume, current, and swimming room of a river, kept warm and clean at 22 to 28 degrees C.

Good to know

Brachyplatystoma filamentosum can reach around 300 cm and, by some accounts, up to 360 cm and over 200 kg, placing it among the biggest freshwater fish on Earth. It makes some of the longest known freshwater fish migrations, spawning far upriver and drifting downstream as young. It is a major commercial catch across the Amazon.

Did you know

This is one of the fish behind Amazon legends of catfish big enough to swallow a person, and at three meters and 200 kg the largest specimens really are longer than a tall man.