Red-Bellied Piranha (Capsule Aquarium 1 Marinepia Matsushima Aquarium)

[sbell]

Another first for me--until now, I didn't have a single piranha in my collection. And if I'm going to get one, might as well start with the best!

Like my other recent fish-figure catch (Ha! See what I did there?), the Archerfish, this one is from the Capsule Aquarium Series 1, figure #01. Branded as the Marinepia Matsushima Aquarium, it is pretty much as hard to find as the archer, but way easier to put together!

The piranha here is the red-bellied piranha, Pygocentrus nattereri. Probably one of the best known, and certainly one of the most wide-ranging. It is also one of the more common ones kept as pets in home aquaria (along with the black piranha Serrasalmus rhombeus). Mostly due to the fearsome appearance and reputation of these fish, with their big nasty teeth and bright colours. Of course, they are really more of scavengers than high-powered hunters, but a few good stories and films have given them a certain stature for people that want tough fish in their tank.

Unlike many of the fish figures I have hunted down, I myself never bothered to keep them at home. I personally found them kind of dull, as they are essentially just big tetras with sharper teeth (although, looking at my school of Congo tetras, if they got a big as a piranha, they have pretty substantial teeth as well). Plus, it's hard to keep other fish with them, since they do tend to attack in close quarters.

But I still wanted the figure! It is about 5.5cm long, so given a max length of 33cm, this figure is 1:6 scale (more easy math!). It rests above a small pile of ground, so not as elaborate as some, but still a great way to display the fish. As an aside, I think that every fish figure (well, swimming, and flying, figure) should have a bit of a base, since most of them look not quite right 'standing' on the ground. Which is why I really like the Capsule series figures over the Animaltales figures. The small patch of ground gives a little bit of 'life' to the animal being displayed.

I also got to learn something with this figure--in my years in fish sales, every piranha was Serrasalmus. So finding out that the red-bellied is a whole different genus now (I looked it up to confirm) was a bit of a surprise. I suppose it's impossible to keep up with taxonomic changes in everything

Pictures:






And just for fun, a diver that somehow slipped back in time to Megapiranha in the late Miocene. Or worse, into the movie of the same name


And yes, there are other piranha figures--Kaiyodo made one as part of an Amazon set; there is a series of strap figures from a different Japanese company (Wing Mau); a few small ones from toy companies like the K&M river set; and of course the new Safari Incredible Creatures one. But this one was always the primary goal!

[widukind]

Also a wonderful fish figurine!!

[bmathison1972]

Kabaya also did a piranha as part of an Amazon set (or is this the same as Kaiyodo's Amazon set??--the relationships of these companies are sometimes confusing).
Here it is on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Kabaya-Kaiyodo-Amazon-Rain-Forest-Blue-Piranha-Fish-Minitaure-Figure-/191198371653?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c844f9f45

[brontodocus]

Brilliant, perhaps one of the best Kaiyodo bottlecap figures. When I was a kid the taxonomy was already a bit confusing, the first time I came across its scientific name in a book it was Rooseveltiella nattereri.

[sbell]

Kabaya also did a piranha as part of an Amazon set (or is this the same as Kaiyodo's Amazon set??--the relationships of these companies are sometimes confusing).
Here it is on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Kabaya-Kaiyodo-Amazon-Rain-Forest-Blue-Piranha-Fish-Minitaure-Figure-/191198371653?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c844f9f45

I think you are correct, it might have been Kabaya. Again, I'd rather have the Kaiyodo!

[Jetoar]

Another impresive figure of Matsushima Aquarium  .