Tambaqui
INFORMATION
Tambaqui
The tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) is a large species of freshwater fish in the family Serrasalmidae. It is native to tropical South America, but kept in aquaculture and introduced elsewhere. It is also known by the names black pacu, black-finned pacu, giant pacu, cachama, gamitana, and sometimes as pacu
(a name used for several other related species).
The tambaqui is currently the only member of Colossoma, but the Piaractus species were also included in this genus in the past.
Ecology
This species is mostly solitary, but it migrates in large schools. During the non-breeding season, adults stay in flooded forests of white (várzea), clear and blackwater (igapó) rivers. They stay there for four to seven months during the flood season, but as the water level drops they move into the main river channels or to a lesser extent floodplain lakes. At the start of the next flood season, large schools move into whitewater rivers where they spawn between November and February. The exact spawning location in the whitewater rivers is not entirely certain, but apparently along woody shores or grassy levees. The schools then break up as the adults return to the flooded forest of white, clear and blackwater rivers, and the annual pattern is repeated. Larvae are found in whitewater rivers, including the Amazon River itself. Juveniles stay near macrophytes in floodplains and flooded forests year-round, only switching to the adult migration pattern when reaching sexual maturity. Maturity is reached at a length of about 60 cm (2 ft).
The species regularly reaches an age of 40 years and may reach up to 65.
Description
The tambaqui is the heaviest characin in the Americas
(the lighter Salminus can grow longer) and the second heaviest scaled freshwater fish in South America
(after the arapaima). It can reach up to 1.1 m (3.6 ft) in total length and 44 kg (97 lb) in weight, but a more typical size is 0.7 m (2.3 ft). The largest caught by rod-and-reel and recognized by IGFA weighed 32.4 kg (71 lb 7 oz), although other systems have a 37 kg (81 lb 9 oz) fish caught in Peru in 2013. After the flood season, around 10% of a tambaqui's weight is the visceral fat reserves and at least another 5% is fat found in the head and muscles.