Zoo Taiping’s 7 Foot Arapaima Fish

The lake, behind Zoo Taiping's Mergastua A restaurant, appears stagnant when covered with duck weed. (inset) file pix of an Arapaima fish

The Arapaima fish, a native to the Amazon and Essequibo basins of South America, is among the world's largest freshwater fish, reaching as much as 3 m (9.8 ft/ Wikipedia).

If you want to catch a glimpse of one locally head to the Taiping Zoo. There is one that lives in the lake behind Zoo Taiping’s Mergastua A restaurant as I discovered during my lunch there recently.

The still lake is covered with a bright green carpet of duck weed but that was until a zoo staffer Thiru came out and started throwing fish into the lake.

As zoo staffer Thiru throws fish into the lake the stagnant duck weed widens and the water become active

Within less than a minute a ripple of activity opened up the carpet of duck weed and the placid lake waters became active.

As Thiru kept throwing the fish into the lake I caught a glimpse of the fish, reddish in colour and easily 5 feet in length.

Glimpses of the Arapaima fish as it feeds on the 'lunch' provided. 

A check with Dr Kevin Lazarus, the director of the Taiping  Zoo said that the fish is an Arapaima species.

“It has been living in the lake for over 5 years now.

“We feed the fish twice a day with half a bucket of fish. Over the years the fish has grown and should be around 7 feet in length now.

The fish should be around 7 feet now and probably a second family of Arapaima lives in the lake 

Lazarus added that there would be a second family living in the lake now.

So the next time you have your lunch at the zoo pick a time between 12 noon to 1.30 and you might catch a glimpse of the Zoo Taiping’s 7 foot Arapaima pet.

JAG