for those who wonder if pleco will cut it as piranha tank mate

[jp80911]

had this rubber lip pleco in 55g with one of my rhom for a week or so.
yesterday saw it belly up with a big chunk on the back was bitten off by the rhom. then i throw it in my pygo tank and they finished most of it.
so for whoever want to add tankmates to their piranha tank, make sure you don't get too attached to the fish you add and hopefully those are not expensive either.

 

[jonahonah]

mine just had his entire rear end severed off, the other is hiding under his log, but the 'rhom' knows and his time is numbered

 

[orbit]

Ouch! Man! LOL That would ruin you're day.

I just moved my P to a 55g yesterday and was thinking of adding in some others tonight.. Hmmm

JP have you ever tried to add Barbs? Fast ones.

 

[kevbc03]

I'm sorry for your loss jp.

On the other hand, my pleco is about 6 inches and has been with my red bellies for 2.5 years.

 

[Diogenes]

Ouch! Man! LOL That would ruin you're day.

I just moved my P to a 55g yesterday and was thinking of adding in some others tonight.. Hmmm

JP have you ever tried to add Barbs? Fast ones.

barbs are bad for piranhas. They will be caught and they will be eaten, and because they're bad for P's you want to try and avoid that.

 

[jp80911]

oh yes, I've tried tiger barbs, and my 4" rhom had a very nice meal.
So far the most successful so call "tank mates" are convicts but every now and then some will get pick off or missing tails, etc.
At least I was never trying to add "tank mates" to my piranha tank. all the ones I've added are either for clean off some algae that's already there or for some snakes for my piranhas. so if they get eaten, big deal...

edit: what Coop said about barbs are correct.

 

[orbit]

barbs are bad for piranhas. They will be caught and they will be eaten, and because they're bad for P's you want to try and avoid that.

I wasn't sure... I had some in my SA/CA tank and no one could catch them but each other...

oh yes, I've tried tiger barbs, and my 4" rhom had a very nice meal.
So far the most successful so call "tank mates" are convicts but every now and then some will get pick off or missing tails, etc.
At least I was never trying to add "tank mates" to my piranha tank. all the ones I've added are either for clean off some algae that's already there or for some snakes for my piranhas. so if they get eaten, big deal...

edit: what Coop said about barbs are correct.

My large Con just got snubbed out of the big boy tank... He was a big guy with some feistynest to him.

 

[yogurt_21]

I say this with any aggressive fish setup and plecos. make sure the pleco has a significant size advantage otherwise you'll end up like the op. plecos being mostly calm need that size to deter the smaller aggressive fish as well as being able to fend off attacks.

 

[Amazon_Addict]

I was told by several people that red eye tetras are to fast for piranha to catch. So I got some today to break up the agro between the Ps. Well in twenty minutes 2 out of the 4 went missing so I kept checking up on the Ps to see them actually catch them when I noticed that all 3 Ps would slowly creep up and corner one so it had no where to go. Then they would all attack at once. It was very interesting to watch. I took the 2 that were left and placed them in my baby piranha grow out tank.