Post #14463

Arapaima: A fish that can withstand a shotgun blast. Her scales are like steel Why shoot fish with a shotgun is an open question, but the fact remains: from a distance of 20-30 meters the result will be near-zero. The pellets will simply bounce off the fish without causing any visible harm to it. After all, arapaima scales are a cool biocomposite, strong and resistant on the outside, but flexible and plastic on the inside. In terms of its characteristics, it is not inferior to the best impact-resistant plastics and some types of steel. But it’s not entirely clear why fish need such strong scales? Are they really trying to shoot her? No, no one is shooting at her, but they are trying to eat her. Yes, yes, this river miracle, from 2 to 4.5 meters long and weighing about 200 kilos, is still at risk. Well, what do you want, the Amazon basin is by no means a resort, the competition here is simply monstrous. And therefore, some piranhas will happily devour a huge but slow fish. But this won’t work with arapaima - they’ll break their teeth on it! Experiments show that piranha teeth crumble into dust before the first scratches appear on the scales of the Amazonian monster. But an arapaima can easily eat a piranha. She hides in the thickets of river vegetation, approaches her prey as quickly as possible, and then... opens her mouth! But it does it so quickly and sharply that the flow of water simply drags the poor fish into the mouth of the arapaima. Fast, effective and efficient. Arapaima is such a good hunter that it is capable of gaining mass at a monstrously fast pace. Already a year after birth, the arapaima weighs about 10 kilograms, and by the age of five it grows to 160 centimeters in length, after which it begins to lay eggs. And he does it with surprising care for such a monster. First, the female lays eggs in batches of about 500 eggs. And for each batch she digs her own hole in which they will lie in relative safety. And absolute safety is ensured by the male, who looks after the offspring in the first 3-4 months of their life. And no one in the entire Amazon can drive him away. And if, after everything you’ve read, it seems to you that arapaima is some kind of too strong fish, then you don’t think so. In its native habitat, it is still held back by harsh conditions and fierce competition from other species, but outside its boundaries nothing stops the fish. Arapaima have already penetrated into Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Guyana, as well as Southeast Asia - in total there are about 70 populations of angry and aggressively breeding fish that subjugate local ecosystems. And the people who took the fish from their home are to blame for this. Moreover, it is especially ironic that fish directly in the Amazon basin are on the verge of extinction. And people are to blame for this too. Local residents catch fish too actively and do not give them the opportunity to recuperate. After all, her vaunted impenetrable scales can't do a