1 kinds · tap one for a closer look
Aggressive; tears scales and fins; keep alone or with big non-fish tankmates.
This one is best kept on its own, or with its own kind.
Aggressive; tears scales and fins; keep alone or with big non-fish tankmates.
Check your local laws. This animal is banned or needs a permit in some places, for example several US states. Check the rules where you live before you buy one, and never release it into the wild.
Meaty foods, live fish; offers fish flakes.
Tap a food to see what it is.
Males have a clearly convex (curved-out) anal fin; females do not.
Common problems. Tap one to see the signs. This is a guide, not a diagnosis.
Nest guarder (egg layer) ·
Not reported as bred in aquaria.
Raise a group together and let a pair form; bonded pairs spawn in a big tank.
Very large tank (600 L+) with a sand or gravel nest area, plants and wood, warm soft water.
Stable warm water, rainy-season style water changes and heavy feeding.
n/a
Fry are guarded by the male; feed newly hatched brine shrimp then chopped shrimp and fish; separate by size to prevent cannibalism.
A deep-bodied scale-eating serrasalmid from the Amazon, Orinoco and upper Paraguay basins; despite its name it is not a true piranha, and it rams other fish with its protruding lower jaw to knock off scales.
French anatomist Georges Cuvier described the wimple piranha in 1819. It is a specialist that feeds largely on the scales of other fish rather than flesh. It turns up now and then in the aquarium trade as a curiosity for species tanks.
First described by Georges Cuvier in 1819.
15 facts checked with sources
Valid name. In 2020 Mateussi, Melo & Oliveira split off Catoprion absconditus (central and eastern Amazon and Essequibo basins, Brazil and Guyana), so some fish traded as C. mento may be C. absconditus. The common name is properly 'wimpel' (German for banner, after the dorsal-fin extensions); Seriously Fish notes 'wimple' is a common mis-spelling.
Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: species in Catoprion (updated 21 Sep 2026) · FishBase: Catoprion mento summaryLegacy has no family. Subfamily Serrasalminae.
FishBase: Catoprion mento summary · Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: species in Catoprion (updated 21 Sep 2026)Both give 15 cm SL (standard length, tail excluded). Wild adults are often much smaller: Nico & Taphorn 1988 (quoted by US FWS) say usually under 80 mm SL.
FishBase: Catoprion mento summary · Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha)Both sources agree on 23-26 °C; legacy 24-28 °C runs 2 °C too warm at the top.
Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha) · FishBase: Catoprion mento summarySeriously Fish range used (husbandry). FishBase gives an upper limit of 5.4. Legacy 5.5-7.5 is wider than either source.
Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha) · FishBase: Catoprion mento summaryLegacy has no hardness.
Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha)Seriously Fish: 120 x 38 x 30 cm = 136.8 L, about 137 L, for one fish. Legacy 300 L is more generous and fine as a recommendation.
Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha)Scale-eater (lepidophage).
Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha) · FishBase: Catoprion mento summary'Pelagic' (open water) is not a named tank level. Legacy 'middle' not confirmed.
FishBase: Catoprion mento summarySeriously Fish rates it Difficult and says it is not for beginners.
Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha)Legacy has no range (its story says Amazon basin). FishBase still includes the Essequibo; Catalog of Fishes now assigns the central/eastern Amazon and Essequibo populations to C. absconditus (2020).
Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: species in Catoprion (updated 21 Sep 2026) · FishBase: Catoprion mento summary · Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha)Legacy 'no visible difference' is wrong.
Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha)Seriously Fish's reproduction section reads only 'Unreported.' The legacy breeding guide (nest guarder, male guards fry) is generic and unsourced.
Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha)Legacy calls it a 'scale-eating piranha from the Amazon basin'; scale-eating, deep body and upturned jaw are confirmed, but it is a piranha only in the loose sense and its range is wider. LEGAL: Texas prohibits all Catoprion with the piranhas; Sri Lanka bans live import (US FWS). Other US states and countries restrict piranhas, so check local law.
Seriously Fish: Catoprion mento (Wimpel Piranha) · US Fish & Wildlife Service: Wimple Piranha (Catoprion mento) Ecological Risk Screening Summary, 2018 · Texas Parks & Wildlife: Prohibited exotic aquatic species