Also called " Black eared Piranha (piranha with the black ears) " , " Black shoulder Piranha (piranha with the black shoulders) " or " Orinoco red-belly Piranha (the red belly of the Orénoque) " , this Piranha is a fish of fresh water of the river of the Orénoque and its affluents to the Venezuela in South America. The Pygocentrus kind gathers the 3 only potentially dangerous species of piranhas for the man: Pygocentrus nattereri, Pygocentrus cariba and Pygocentrus piraya. Gregarious species, one generally finds them in benches of hundreds even thousands of individuals. Their body is of circular form with a convex head.

The morphology of Pygocentrus cariba holds in 3 points of distinction with its 2 other congeneric Pygocentrus:

• Œil whose iris is silver plated with a black pigmentation on the high and low areas of the eye.

• brilliant silver plated Sides.
• black Task humérale.

The youthful one is very coloured (tons oranges and reds with black spots more or less pronounced on the sides which it will lose while growing. In period of reproduction, Pygocentrus cariba revêt a darker color drawing on the black.

• maximum Length observed: 38 cm.

• maximum Weight observed: 650 gr.

Referencing:

• 1821 : Referred by Humboldt & Valencians under name Pygocentrus cariba.

• 1850: Referred by Valencians under name Pygocentrus caribe.
• 1875: Referred by Lütken under name Pygocentrus notatus.
• 1911: Referred by Fowler under name Pygocentrus stigmaterythraeus.

Pygocentrus cariba life groups (bench) several thousands of individuals and appreciates of them clear and calm water with a rather dense vegetation (roots, mangrove, bottom of clear sand). This species is most carnivorous of the 3 pennies species of pygocentrus what explains its name " Cariba" (cannibal) which was given to him by the indigenous Indians who according to their habits, jettaient the body of their deaths to water, which were " débarrassés" of their flesh by these piranhas. Cariba is also called " Donkey Castrator" (castrator of ass) because it tends to attack the most intimate parts of the horses and bovines which cross the rivers where it saw.

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