History Main / PiranhaProblem

* Fatty Glutton from the ''{{Darius Series}}'', a HumongousMecha piranha. His [[FailOSuckyname name may sound laughable]], but don't be fooled- he's usually one of the [[ThatOneBoss hardest bosses]] of the games he appears in.

* ''BanjoKazooie'' has BubblegloopSwamp, the water of which is infested with piranhas that take your health away.

* Merely entering piranha-infested water in the ''TombRaider'' series triggers a swarm that eats up your health bar in seconds.

** Teehee, a ''[[{{Pun}} rip-off]]''.

** Teehee, a '[[Pun rip-off]]'.

* One of the types of Mook in ''[[LetsGoJungle Let's Go Jungle]]''. Very irritating, because they're hard to hit and attack in swarms, and if even one gets to you before you can kill it, you lose up to about a third of your lifebar!
* In [[SpyroTheDragon Spyro 3]], the Midday Gardens world has a level called Spooky Swamp. The water there is ''full'' of piranhas! And they ''will kill you'' if you so much as ''land'' in it, let alone try to ''swim'', unless you ''[[ThisIsSPARTA get. the hell. out of there.]]''

*** Which is also the subject of a gag in TheFarSide (see below).

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PiranhaPosterA.jpg

* Lockjaw and Snapjaw from ''DonkeyKongCountry 2''

* Carvanha from ''{{Pokemon}}''. Unsurprisingly, it evolves into [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks Sharpedo]].

** And of course, the remake, ''Piranha 3D''!

* A character in ''Bless the Beasts and Children'' makes a point by telling the story of a friend and his pet piranha, a vaguely charming beastie with a fondness for live goldfish. The friend was unable to keep the piranha, so he put it in a goldfish pond to spend the rest of its days feeding happily. The piranha got greedy, "turned into a goldfish gourmet," and lived entirely on the bellies of the goldfish (apparently the tastiest part.) Then the pond's owners noticed all the belly-less goldfish floating at the top of the pond, moved the survivors to another pond, and dumped in poison. Moral: if you start something (say, eating a goldfish), better finish the job!

** And of course, the upcoming remake, ''Piranhas 3D''!

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In RealLife, the piranha's viciousness is exaggerated. When they're not hungry or are asleep, they flee from anything that disturbs them. Of course, when they do become hungry they actually can leave nothing but bones when they are inclined to attack and eat. While President Theodore Roosevelt did once observe Amazon piranhas reduce a cow to a skeleton in a few minutes, this occurred under artificial conditions. The locals had blocked off this portion of the tributary with nets, dumped hordes of extra piranhas in there, and starved them for days before throwing the cow in, all in the name of making a spectacle for the visiting president.

* The 2005 [[ThePunisher Punisher]] video game features piranha tanks that you can use to threaten enemies into giving you info by holding them just a few inches from the water's surface. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from dunking your victims - Frank sticks the enemy's head in for a few seconds and pulls it out, revealing that most of the guy's face has been eaten off.