Arapaima found in Florida question!

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amazontank

amazontank

Redtail Catfish
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Nov 14, 2010
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It's all over the news here in South Florida that a 7' Arapaima was found washed up dead in a Lake.
My question is can an Arapaima survive a winter cold snap in Florida since it does have to breaths air?
 
if the air Arapaimas are kept in is cold they can easily catch pneumonia and die even if the water is warm so im not sure they could survive. also im pretty sure that specific arapaima was already dead from what I have heard on the story. it was most likely fishermen who wanted to stock several ponds around themso they could fish for them but when the arapaima died during transport they just dumped it in as lake. Im not sure how creditable the source is but just one of the stories I have heard
 
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From the lower lethal temperature study they did when considering their invasive risk, they basically stop eating below 70 and 100% of them die at 61F. The USGS data indicates that temperatures in the caloosahatchee where it washed up get colder than that almost every year. It also wasn't anywhere near 7'. Looked like more like 3.5-4' to me from the pictures of the carcass. One of the original news reporters speculated it was 5-1/2 feet.

There is literally an Arapaima farm 25 miles from where it was found. It was no doubt an escape or a release. I'm not sure why no journalists picked up on that angle. Probably because they are kind of "off the map" and impossible to get ahold of.
 
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