(Valenciennes, 1846)
Family: Erythrinidae (Trahiras)
Order: Characiformes (characins)
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)
Max. size: 123cm
World Record Weight: 88.19 pounds / Ref# 12225
Environment: benthopelagic; potamodromous (Ref. 51243); freshwater
Climate: tropical
Distribution: South America: Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, Venezuela, Brazil
Common Names: aymara (creole),Goliath wolf fish, tigerfish
Description: carnivorous and night fish.. Reproduction during the rain season from December to March.
The Hoplias Aimara is the largest species in the Hoplias family, and can reach more than four feet in length. It is common to see people in South America calling them giant trahiras or trairao (the Portuguese word for big trahira). A fisherman once referred to the Hoplias Aimara. As a floating giant bar of soap with a mouth full of teeth. These ferocious, prehistoric looking fish, members of the Erythrinidae family of characins.
Historically, the Hoplias Aimara was thought to occur in the whole Orinoco system (according to a book published by Donald Taphorn, 1992). These include the lower reaches of the Orinoco River and tributaries (Venezuela), Coastal rivers of the Guyana's and Suriname (such as the Essequibo - British Guyana, Nickerie and Saramacca - Suriname, Sinnamary - French Guyana), coastal rivers of the Amapa state in Brazil (rivers Amapa and Araguari, for instance), tributaries of the left bank of the Amazon river (including rivers Trombetas and Jari) and tributaries of the right bank of the Amazon river (including rivers Tapajos, Xingu and Tocantins). Note that the species was not found in the Amazon river itself. All these different populations belong to the same species, Hoplias Aimara, and are therefore morphologically indistinguishable from each other, in the broader sense. According to researchers, if a molecular research is conducted, it will show that the whole distribution of the Hoplias Aimara is, in fact, composed of several different populations. As an example, there are several specimens from tributaries of both sides of the Amazon River, but there is none from the Amazon river itself, which shows that the Amazon might represent a barrier between the population in the south and north banks. Therefore, the Aimara's from Venezuela are pretty much the same as the ones in the Guyana's and the rest of the areas in which the species occurs. The species does not occur in the Sao Francisco drainage. The trahiras from the Sao Francisco belong to two other species, one of them quite similar to Aimara the Lacerdae. Other things differ Aimara from Lacerdae, such as the lack of a certain bone in the roof of the mouth of Aimara. In a ventral view underneath the head, the Aimara has parallel dentaries. Another distinguishing feature of the Aimara is the black spot on the opercle membrane. No other species of Hoplias have this spot but the Aimara. Certain populations like the Aimara from Amapa does have a slightly longer jaw and more cylindrical body than say one from Guyana. These population differences happen in the Aimara's, but nothing that changes radically from population to population. The black V-shaped stripes in several specimens, specially small (young) ones. Apparently, as the fish grows old, the stripes get sparser along body, as the background color of body gets darker, which makes it difficult to notice the dark V-shaped marks in very large specimens. The same phenomenon seems to take place with other species of Hoplias. Hoplias Macrophthalmus and the Aimara are the same species. Hoplias Macrophthalmus should not be used. .