Lava Piranha

"WE DON'T LET IT HAPPEN! NO!"

- Lava Piranha

Lava Piranha is an enormous Piranha Plant boss in Paper Mario who, as its name suggests, lives in pools of lava. Only a single Lava Piranha has been seen in any Mario games so far, but according to Goombario and Koopa Koot, there are more than one.

Paper Mario
The Lava Piranha featured in Paper Mario is the ruler of Mt. Lavalava on Lavalava Island. It is found in a small lava pool where the other Piranha Plants report to him. Once Mario defeats it for good, it falls to the ground and sinks back into the lava.

Lava Piranha speaks in shouts and shrieks, blathering out insults at Mario when he confronts him for the fifth Star Spirit, Misstar, whom Bowser ordered the fiery Piranha Plant to guard. Its attacks are rather simple. Most of its attacking is done by his Lava Buds. When it attacks, it spits out an orb of fire at Mario that does five attack damage to Mario.

It is also important to note that Lava Piranha is battled twice. After Mario has done enough damage to it and defeats it, it suddenly emerge from lava and gets forty more HP that Mario must eliminate. The second time, Lava Piranha's head is on fire and its tongue is sticking out. If Sushie is Ultra-rank, her Tidal Wave ability makes this second phase easy, and possible to beat without taking any damage, as water and ice attacks stun it for two full turns.

It has a cameo appearance in the credits of Paper Mario, poking its head out from behind Lavalava Island, alternating with Raphael the Raven.

Appearance
Lava Piranha bears some resemblance to the boss Naval Piranha from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, except smaller and with fewer Piranha Buds and tentacles. Lava Piranha has a large tongue and white ring markings instead of filled white spots on its head, like typical Piranha Plants.

Trivia

 * Since Lava Piranha calls Mario a "bad guy", it may be possible that Lava Piranha was originally a good guy, but Bowser tricked it into thinking that Mario was evil.
 * Lava Piranha bears a slight resemblence to Audrey II, the monster from the film Little Shop of Horrors.