Piranha - Relationship With Humans

Relationship With Humans

Piranha teeth are often used to make tools and weapons by the indigenous population. Piranhas are also popular as food, although if an individual piranha is caught on a hook or line, it may be attacked by others.{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}

Piranhas are commonly consumed by subsistence fishermen, and often sold for food in local markets. In recent decades, dried specimens have been marketed as tourist souvenirs. Piranhas occasionally bite and sometimes injure bathers and swimmers. A piranha bite is considered more an act of carelessness than that of misfortune, but piranhas are a considerable nuisance to commercial and sport fishers because they steal bait, mutilate catch, damage nets and other gear, and may bite when disturbed or threatened.

Several piranha species appear in the aquarium trade. Piranhas can be bought as pets in some areas, but they are illegal in many parts of the United States. It is illegal to import piranhas in the Philippines and violators could face six months to four years of jail.

Piranhas lay their eggs in pits dug during the breeding and swim around to protect them. Newly hatched young feed on zooplankton, and eventually move on to small fish once large enough.

The most common aquarium piranha is Pygocentrus nattereri, the red-bellied piranha. Piranhas can be bought fully grown or as babies, often no larger than a thumbnail. It is important to keep Pygocentrus piranhas alone or in groups of four or more, not in pairs, since aggression among them is common, not allowing the weaker fish to survive, and is distributed more widely when kept in larger groups. It is not rare to find individuals with one eye missing due to a previous attack.