Worlds largest freshwater fish

[arapaimag]

I think that secretly we all want the huge sizes of fish that myths have perpetuated to wow and amaze us and our friends.

But taking the last 2 lines of one of Lucretius's most philosophical passage's "the mask is torn off, the reality remains"

If you read again the National Geographic article link I sent in my last post in this thread, the answer to this thread's question is answered as to what is the largest freshwater fish ever recorded.

This is by reality 646 lbs not by myth 2200 lbs or whatever fiction we might have read.

I never would have believed the low weight having grown up reading and yes believing the nonsense of fish stories of 1600 lb and larger fish and 16 foot wels and arapaimas and 23 foot chinese paddlefish. But in reality thats all they were........fisherman's stories.

Often quoted as being "credible accounts" because they were announced by "scientists". Who in some cases there is no record of or they heard the size second hand from a fisherman. If they actually had measured the fish it would have been accurate sizes like 16 feet 4 and 3/4 inches. Weights would be to the pound at least not rounded off to 2200 lbs.

 

[arapaimag]

damn, that sucks that they didnt weigh it. too bad though it could have been the world record. maybe, maybe not. maybe in a couple years someone will catch it again and weigh it this time.

The article seems to indicate they did catch it again one month later. Perhaps they were reluctant to try to weigh or measure it because the largest ray ever caught died when they did.

 

[BigTim15]

well i am probaly going to sound stupid saying this but i think that it is the fw ray..and i think that there are much bigger rays out there

 

[ljriggz]

One thing everyone seems to forget when they knock gigas is fish have whats called indeterminate growth, they grow all their lives and based off how fast gigas grows, it can be a long lived fish, due to over fishing and people now figuring that their may be more than one species of aripima we may never see the 15 footers, the ones in captivity may not be the same species or locality of the ones that reached 15 feet. but get the water right feed it well and keep it alive long enough you will see 15 footers, just not in home aquariums.

 

[nishant_datta]

One thing everyone seems to forget when they knock gigas is fish have whats called indeterminate growth, they grow all their lives and based off how fast gigas grows, it can be a long lived fish, due to over fishing and people now figuring that their may be more than one species of aripima we may never see the 15 footers, the ones in captivity may not be the same species or locality of the ones that reached 15 feet. but get the water right feed it well and keep it alive long enough you will see 15 footers, just not in home aquariums.

this makes a lotta sense. kinda like a siberian tiger being double in size to a sumatran one. similar analogies are already there in the fish world as well. Isn't the chinese paddle fish also entirely FW ? Pangasias and CPF may out weigh/grow the paimas.

 

[Acheloos]

No, you will never see a 15 foot arapaima. What you forget is the simple fact that those myth comes only from one single second-hand report with a completely absurd length-weight-relation. Besides this one single and not-trustworthy report there is no, and I mean really no, indication for arapaimas of this size. And there are still a lot of regions where they are not overfished, and even there sizes of 2,5m are already highly unusual. With optimum conditions you will possibly once see arapaimas in the 3m range, but never much bigger.