Golden dorado
Encyclopedia
The Golden Dorado is a large river fish
that lives in central and east-central South America
. Despite having Salminus in its name, the dorado is not related to any species of salmon
, nor to the saltwater fish
also called dorado
. It is very popular among recreational anglers
and also supports large commercial fisheries.
s that are filled with sharp teeth. They reach maturity around 37 centimetres (14.6 in) long, and are golden colored. The average size of the golden dorado is about 3–10 kg (6.6–22 lb). The largest recorded size is 100 centimetres (39.4 in) length and 31.4 kilograms (69.2 lb).
, Paraguay
, Uruguay
, Bolivia
and northern Argentina
, where found in the river basins of the Paraguay
, Uruguay
, Chapare
and Mamoré, and the drainage of the Lagoa dos Patos
. The dorado is considered an endangered species in Paraguay and therefore a 5-year fishing ban is currently on effect there. Other South American river basins hold relatives of this species: S. franciscanus in the São Francisco Basin
, S. hilarii in the upper Paraná
, Amazon
and Orinoco
basins, and S. affinis in the Santiago and Magdalena
basins in Ecuador
and Colombia
.
"Dorado", both in the name of the fish and other uses such as the El Dorado
legend, originates from the Latin
word for gold
, auratus (later modified into dauratus in Vulgar Latin
, and subsequently oro in Spanish
and ouro in Portuguese
).
s, eating a wide variety of prey fish. One of the dorado's favorite prey are sabalo
, a type of schooling fish
typically 1-4 kg in weight.
The Golden Dorado is highly sought-after by anglers, both for its delicious taste and fighting ability. The aggressive nature of the dorado, its high jumps, and great fighting strength and stamina have created a great competitive market among anglers from all corners of the world, traversing South American waters in hopes of hooking a dorado.
game Animal Crossing
as well as its two sequels, the NDS
game Animal Crossing: Wild World
and the Wii
game Animal Crossing: City Folk as an extremely rare fish.
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
that lives in central and east-central South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. Despite having Salminus in its name, the dorado is not related to any species of salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
, nor to the saltwater fish
Mahi-mahi
The mahi-mahi or common dolphinfish is a surface-dwelling ray-finned fish found in off-shore temperate, tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. It is one of only two members of the Coryphaenidae family, the other being the pompano dolphinfish...
also called dorado
Mahi-mahi
The mahi-mahi or common dolphinfish is a surface-dwelling ray-finned fish found in off-shore temperate, tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. It is one of only two members of the Coryphaenidae family, the other being the pompano dolphinfish...
. It is very popular among recreational anglers
Recreational fishing
Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing, is fishing for pleasure or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is fishing for profit, or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival....
and also supports large commercial fisheries.
Description
The Golden Dorado have large heads, with powerful jawJaw
The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term jaws is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serving to open and close it and is part of the body plan of...
s that are filled with sharp teeth. They reach maturity around 37 centimetres (14.6 in) long, and are golden colored. The average size of the golden dorado is about 3–10 kg (6.6–22 lb). The largest recorded size is 100 centimetres (39.4 in) length and 31.4 kilograms (69.2 lb).
Distribution and habitat
Golden Dorado live in warm freshwater habitats in southern BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
and northern Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, where found in the river basins of the Paraguay
Paraguay River
The Paraguay River is a major river in south central South America, running through Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina...
, Uruguay
Uruguay River
The Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...
, Chapare
Chapare River
The Chapare River is a river in Bolivia, which is a tributary of the Mamoré River in the Amazon River watershed. The river has its source at the confluence of Espíritu Santo River and San Mateo River in the Cochabamba Department at Villa Tunari. It is the main waterway of Chapare Province...
and Mamoré, and the drainage of the Lagoa dos Patos
Lagoa dos Patos
Lagoa dos Patos is the second largest lagoon in Latin America and the biggest in Brazil. It is located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. It is 174 miles long, has a maximum width of 44 miles , and a total area of 3,803 sq. mi....
. The dorado is considered an endangered species in Paraguay and therefore a 5-year fishing ban is currently on effect there. Other South American river basins hold relatives of this species: S. franciscanus in the São Francisco Basin
São Francisco River
The São Francisco is a river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil...
, S. hilarii in the upper Paraná
Paraná River
The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...
, Amazon
Amazon Basin
The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...
and Orinoco
Orinoco
The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3% of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia...
basins, and S. affinis in the Santiago and Magdalena
Magdalena River
The Magdalena River is the principal river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the mouth of its delta, as...
basins in Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
and Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
.
"Dorado", both in the name of the fish and other uses such as the El Dorado
El Dorado
El Dorado is the name of a Muisca tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and, as an initiation rite, dived into a highland lake.Later it became the name of a legendary "Lost City of Gold" that has fascinated – and so far eluded – explorers since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors...
legend, originates from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word for gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, auratus (later modified into dauratus in Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
, and subsequently oro in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and ouro in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
).
Diet
Golden Dorados are piscivorePiscivore
A piscivore is a carnivorous animal which eats primarily fish. Piscivory was the diet of early tetrapods , insectivory came next, then in time reptiles added herbivory....
s, eating a wide variety of prey fish. One of the dorado's favorite prey are sabalo
Prochilodus lineatus
Prochilodus lineatus is a South American species of ray-finned fish that inhabits the basin of the Paraná River and the Paraguay River in the Argentine Mesopotamia and Paraguay, the Pilcomayo River in Bolivia, and the Paraíba do Sul River in Brazil...
, a type of schooling fish
Shoaling and schooling
In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling , and if, in addition, the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling . In common usage, the terms are sometimes used rather loosely...
typically 1-4 kg in weight.
The Golden Dorado is highly sought-after by anglers, both for its delicious taste and fighting ability. The aggressive nature of the dorado, its high jumps, and great fighting strength and stamina have created a great competitive market among anglers from all corners of the world, traversing South American waters in hopes of hooking a dorado.
Culinary preparation
Dorados are excellent to eat and are often barbecued with tomatoes and bell peppers. Often utilized in the making of fish soups they are also popularly fried in South America. The Dorado has a white flaky flesh with a notably high fat content.Dorado in popular culture
The dorado is featured in the GCNNintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
game Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing
The Animal Crossing games have garnered positive response. The first three games are among the best-selling for their respective consoles. Animal Crossing has sold 2.321 million copies; Wild World 10.79 million; and City Folk 3.38 million...
as well as its two sequels, the NDS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
game Animal Crossing: Wild World
Animal Crossing: Wild World
is a 2005 social simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console, and is the second game in the Animal Crossing series....
and the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
game Animal Crossing: City Folk as an extremely rare fish.