The Piraiba Catfish is native to deep channels of the Amazon, Orinoco, Guiana Shield and adjacent river basins
in northwestern South America. It is one of the longest catfish in the Amazon, typically reaching 2-2.5 metres (weighing over 150kg)
but it can reach 3.5m (excluding tail filaments).
It has very long barbels and caudal filaments. Diet is mainly other fish. (There is a similar-looking relative,
the False Piraiba, also called the Dark-caped Goliath Catfish and the Peru Piraiba Catfish, B. capapretum, which used to be
considered the same species.)