Written by Markus Buehler.
Photos courtesy of: Marcos Amend, Leandro Castello,Luis Claudio Marigo, Josae Marcio Ayres, Nathan Wardle.
The Arapaima (Arapaima gigas) is a big fish. Indeed a very big fish, especially for a freshwater species. But is the Arapaima, or Pirarucu as it is called in South America really the largest freshwater predator fish in the world, and how big can it actually grow? In popular and even scientific literature, as well as on the web, you can often read that this species can reach a length of 4.5m (14.7 feet) and a weight of 200kg (440lb).
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Ecologists struggle to understand-and protect-Southeast Asia’s large migratory catfish. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the Mekong giant catfish as Earth’s largest freshwater fish.
Recently I was sitting on my porch, having a little relax with a nice cup of tea, enjoying the late afternoon sun as it started to slip down behind the Coconut trees, when a guy from next door just wandered over and sat down. We had a little chat in Thai about what we had been doing all day, My Thai language skills are getting better after a few months so when he said do you want to go fishing of course I said yes, “what fish (plah araigh) ?” ,”(Plah chon) “Striped Snakehead” he said. 
Taken for a Six Hour ride by a 100KG (220lb) Freshwater Stingray.”Each time the ray decided to stick on the bottom, there was no way we could move it, not even for a single inch. When it was crawling slowly on the river’s muddy bottom, we would pump it like if it was a matter of life and death but without being able to lift the ray vertically a single inch.”