The true size of Arapaima gigas
- Thread starter Acheloos
- Start date
I would be really interested to see photos of this fish. As I said before, there seems to be no photos of Arapaimas in the net bigger than the 2,65m specimen from Thailand. Not from South America, not from Asia or from any zoos. So I find it rather hard to accept specimens in the 4m range if there is not a single actualy proof for one of at least 3m.
And the fish on the photo is by no means 3m.
I made an edited version to show the size-comparison better. The green line shows how tall the man is in this position, the violett line shows how tall it would be if he would stand upright. As it is not directly behind the fish, but bends forward, he would be most probably even taller than this.
The red line is the length of the arapaima. As you can see in direct comparison, the line of the fish is about 1,5m longer than the man´s height. So if this man is not 2m tall, the fish will hardly be in the 3m range. As south american men are in general not very tall, the fish can´t hardly be longer than 2,5m. Keep in mind that the man bends forward and looks even a bit smaller than he is, and the violett line is possibly too short. Furthermore it could be that he is only 1,6m, what would be no uncommon height for a south american man in the jungle. So 2,5m are even possibly too high, and a length of 2,30-2,40m are much more probable.
And the fish on the photo is by no means 3m.
I made an edited version to show the size-comparison better. The green line shows how tall the man is in this position, the violett line shows how tall it would be if he would stand upright. As it is not directly behind the fish, but bends forward, he would be most probably even taller than this.
The red line is the length of the arapaima. As you can see in direct comparison, the line of the fish is about 1,5m longer than the man´s height. So if this man is not 2m tall, the fish will hardly be in the 3m range. As south american men are in general not very tall, the fish can´t hardly be longer than 2,5m. Keep in mind that the man bends forward and looks even a bit smaller than he is, and the violett line is possibly too short. Furthermore it could be that he is only 1,6m, what would be no uncommon height for a south american man in the jungle. So 2,5m are even possibly too high, and a length of 2,30-2,40m are much more probable.
Well, that´s a completely different species of fish and doesn´t help in any way for this discussion I think.
You brought it up in the first post, just showing people a picture of what you were talking about...Acheloos;2135757; said:
Well, okay. What I wanted to say in the first post (keep in mind that this was mainly a copied article I wrote once for a site about fishing in Thailand and not for the forum posting), is that the arapaima is not the biggest freshwater fish of the world.
Oh, I know. That's why I was showing a picture of that catfish. They're not longer, but they definitely weigh more. Not trying to derail or anything...
They are possibly even longer, given that I can still not find any authenticated record of more than 2,65 m for an arapaima. And even then, there is still a record length of 2,78m for Silurus glanis and much more for the chinese paddlefish.
I get more and more frustrated every time I open this post. Just a quick Google search easily brought up some Arapaima Gigas which are very large. Exact size aside this is just to show there are many large ones, and none are obviously world records. Just some big catches, so if these are so plentiful what makes you think every one in the world who says 4+ meters is adult size is wrong? Every show I've ever watched or thing I've read states that is adult size, some even say 5 meters. However you, some random person with nothing to back up your claim states they don't reach those lengths. Even after someone has told you they've seen a 4.2 meter Arapaima who as I said before WORKS WITH THEM. I think he knows what he is talking about.
