Flying piranha

Kingdom:

The **flying piranha** is a species of piranha native to the rivers of South Alor. Unlike other piranha species, the flying piranha, as its name suggests, could fly thanks to its powerful pectoral fin.

## Description

Often known as the "flying death", this fish has a popular reputation as a ferocious flying predator, despite being primarily a scavenger. Flying piranhas have a reddish tinge to the belly when fully grown, although juveniles are a silver color with darker spots. The fish can grow to a weight of 4.3 kilograms (9.4 pounds) and 99 centimeters (39 inches) in standard length. They have a bright green body with teal dorsal fin and caudal fin. Their pectoral fins have patagia within it, allowing it to glide long distances for long periods of time. Females can be distinguished from males by the slightly deeper red color of their bellies.

## Behaviour

The flying piranhas are nocturnal carnivores, spending most of their days sleeping in the water during daylight. They emerge at nightfall to swarm across the sky in a beautiful cloud of bright green and teal. Upon sighting any movement, they condense into an ominous tornado-like hunting formation to swarm their prey and strip off every bit of meat on their prey, shredding them in a matter of minutes, leaving only the skeletons. They are only afraid of light and is the reason why they are nocturnal. They live in large packs of up to hundreds if not thousands.

### Diet

The flying piranhas, when alone, feed on small prey such as worms, shrimps, and small fish. However, in a pack, they can feed on anything bigger than they are, and are known to feed on prey as large as or larger than humans. Although their reputation as a dangerous killing machine, they tend to be scavengers and tend to only feed on weak, injured, dying, or dead animals in the wild. Instead of gathering in packs to take down large prey, they instead gather in those packs for protection against predators, and are timid individually.

Feeding methods may vary depending on the weather or the condition of the habitat. In cold places, piranhas tend to feed during the day and sleep during the night. In warmer places, they tend to emerge at night and sleep during the day. Throughout the day, the fish lurk in dark areas and ambush their prey. Flying piranhas use their ability to fly to catch prey that are attempting to flee from them, and tend to use this ability when in a pack. When scavenging, the piranha will eat a wide variety of food, ranging from pieces of debris, insects, snails, fish fins and scales, and plants.

### Reproduction

Flying piranhas are usually able to breed when they are atleast two years old. Female piranhas can lay a clutch of up to 10,000 eggs near water plants, onto which the eggs stick. The males then fertilize the eggs. After just four days the eggs will hatch, and the juvenile piranhas will hide in the plants until they are large enough to defend themselves, at which point hiding from predators becomes lurking for prey.

Adult piranhas will swim side-by-side in small circles, sometimes with two individuals swimming in opposite directions while keeping their ventral surfaces close to one another. Individuals may also breach out of the water and come back. Although this may appear to be a courtship display, a closer look reveals that the adults are actually defending nesting sites. The nests are about 5 centimeters deep, and are dug amongst water grasses, with the eggs attached to the grasses and plant stems. This shows that the flying piranhas show a form of parental care for the nest and the young. When left unattended, other fish, such as characids, may prey upon the eggs.