Tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and South America have a tremendous variety of freshwater fish. Many of the smaller species are popular aquarium fish. These fish include the guppies, mollies, and swordtails of North and South America and the Siamese fighting fish of Asia. Large tropical freshwater fish include the giant arapaima, which lives in jungle rivers of South America. The arapaima is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. Some arapaimas weigh more than 200 pounds (91 kilograms). The elephant-nose mormyrid of tropical Africa uses its long snout to hunt for food under stones and in mud on river bottoms.<NP>
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World Book illustrations by Donald Moss and Colin Newman, BernardThornton Artists</P>
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