''Pao cochinchinensis''Kottelat, M. (2013)
The Fishes of the Inland Waters of Southeast Asia: A Catalogue and Core Bibliography of the Fishes Known to Occur in Freshwaters, Mangroves and Estuaries.
''The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 2013, Supplement No. 27: 1–663.'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

pufferfish Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...

native to the basins of the

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , ...

and

Chao Phraya River The Chao Phraya ( or ; th, แม่น้ำเจ้าพระยา, , or ) is the major river in Thailand, with its low alluvial plain forming the centre of the country. It flows through Bangkok and then into the Gulf of Thailand. Et ...

s. This species grows to a length of SL. It is known for its reputation to attack people by slicing off bits of flesh. Their tendency to take chunks of human flesh is similar to

piranha A piranha or piraña (, , or ; or , ) is one of a number of freshwater fish in the family Serrasalmidae, or the subfamily Serrasalminae within the tetra family, Characidae in order Characiformes. These fish inhabit South American rivers, ...

s. It is one of two pufferfish species to attack humans, the other species is the Ferocious Pufferfish (''Feroxodon multistriatus'').

References

External links

Photograph
Tetraodontidae Fish of the Mekong Basin Fish of Cambodia Fish of Laos Fish of Thailand Fish of Vietnam Fish described in 1866 {{tetraodontiformes-stub