Arapaima Gigas

Also swimming through the Amazon and its tributaries, lakes, and swamps are the arapaima fish. In Brazil, it’s called a pirarucu and the name in Peru is paiche.

This mega fish is one of the world’s largest freshwater fish reaching lengths of 10 feet and weighing 40 pounds (the world’s largest fish is the whale shark—check out these fascinating facts about sharks).

These are air-breathing fish that breathe with a coughing noise. Because of this, they stay close to the water’s surface which makes them all too easy to catch with a harpoon; the arapaima’s main threat is overfishing.