Quantitative analysis of published data on the growth,metabolism, food consumption,and related features of the red-bellied piranha,Serrasalmus nattereri (Characidae)

Synopsis A tentative set of growth parameters of the von Bertalanffy growth equation were estimated for the red-bellied piranha,Serrasalmus nattereri, a common characid of the Amazonas and adjacent floodplains, based on length-frequency data collected by R.H. Lowe-McConnell in Guyana. These parameters and related statistics are then used, along with published data from metabolic, field and feeding experiment data to estimate the relative food consumption of a population ofS. nattereri. This is complemented with biological data assembled from the scattered literature onS. nattereri to provide a snapshot of this species.