Orénoque - Discover fishes living in this basin

When searching for food, it often swims with it head bowed down. During breeding, the female deposits it eggs in areas where aquatic vegetation is dense.

Found from the Amazon to the Orinoco, the saddle cichlid occupies a wide variety of freshwater habitats. An opportunistic species, it adapts its breeding behavior to seasonal hydrological cycles.

The blue acara inhabits the Orinoco, Lake Maracaibo, and the upper Magdalena basins, with a presence in Trinidad. It frequents rivers, marshes, and floodplains, where it feeds on invertebrates, small fish, and plant matter.

An ambush predator, the oscar quietly hunts fish, crustaceans, and insects in the calm, wooded waters of South America. It has been introduced to various countries with detrimental environmental consequences, notably in Florida and Puerto Rico.

It seeks its prey near the surface and sometimes it jumps out of the water. It accommodates well to life in captivity, but it must be maintained in a large aquarium. Also avoid putting in a pond with small fish.

The electric eel is a freshwater fish found in the basins of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. Like all species in the Gymnotes family, it has the ability to emit electric impulses. These animals have been studied since the 18th century and have inspired numerous research projects, such as Alessandro Volta's battery or more recently, in 2017, the development of hydrogels used in cardiac stimulators.