The major waters of South America are
three river systems affecting all life over a vast territory. In the north it
is the Orinoco; to the south, the most powerful river ,the Amazon, flows across
nearly all the continent and still further south in the Paraná-Paraguay river system.
The Amazon is fed by mightily rivers as well as by a number of smaller river
and brooks. The great network of meanders, inlets and tributaries alternating
filled with tropical rain torrents and flooded with tropical sun, has made it
possible for the richest and most variegated ichthyologists estimate that there
are up to 2,500 Fish species living
here. The variety of fish communities is made still greater by the differences
in chemical composition of the waters, from soft, slightly or very acid clean
one-the so-called black waters, the Rio Negro-to muddy ones called white waters.
Many kilometers below the confluence black and the other white: no substantial
fusion is taking place.
Fishes
living in South America:
South
America is the home of 6 m long saw fish, Amazon sharks, and Predatory catfish
called “pirabia”. Attaining a length of
3 m and electric eels generating electricity with a current of as much
as 650 v. Also minute parasitic fish of genus Stegophilus
live here, burrowing in the gills of large fish of the genus Vandellia which penetrate the urinary
system of bathing mammals. Shoals of piranhas with strong jaws equipped with
many teeth as sharp as scalpels inspire terror. Beside these ichthyological dainties, there is a great variety of species of small fishes, many of which, e.g.
Tetras of the family characidae, adorn our aquariums.
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