Nutritional Freshwater Life
246
Common name: Piracanjuba.
Distribution: South America: La Plata
Basin (Bailly, 1997b).
Habitat: Rivers of large and medium
size, as well as small lakes connected
to them.
Description: Females of this species
may grow to a maximum length of 2 m
and weight of 10 kg, and males grow to
60 cm and 3.5 kg, respectively. Body is
elongated, and its dorsal part is slightly
higher in older specimens. Color of the
body is blue-green, while the fins are
orange and bright colored.  Caudal fin
is black. It is omnivorous, feeding on
fruits, seeds, and insects, and small
fish.
Nutritional Facts
Proximate Composition (% DM) (Grown at
32% DW Protein and 12.1 DW a Lipid Diets)
Moisture Protein Lipid Ash Fiber Energy b
23.02
32.65 12.36 4.33 11.49 21.25
a Dry weight.
b kJ/g.
Source: Data from Borba et al. (2003).
Piaractus brachypomus G. Cuvier 1818
Order: Characiformes
Family: Characidae
Common name: Red-bellied pacu.
Distribution: Tropical America; Orinoco and Amazon River Basins, South
America (USGS, 2013).
Habitat: Marginal lagoons and ponds;
upstreams.
Description: This species possesses a
unique rare feature, viz., the adipose
fin is rayed in adults. Body of juveniles is spotted and the fins are dark
edged. They also have a distinctive
large blotch on the opercle. Adults are
uniformly dark or marbled. It grows
to a maximum length of 88 cm and
weight of 25 kg (U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, 2012; Environmental Institute
of Houston Invasive Species Inventory).
Nutritional Facts
Proximate Composition (% DM)
Moisture a Protein
Fat
Ash
73.91
66.49
6.96
20.58
a Fresh weight.
Minerals (%) and Energy
(kcal/kg)
Ca
P
Energy
13.87
3.07
2884
Source: Data from Barua and
Chakraborty (2011).