Greetings folks,
I happenned to come across this website by searching infos on a specific fish which appears to not be compatible with neither of my tanks, and decided that, with such a cool name, I could perhaps register and see if I can share my hobby along with other people of the like!
As a first step, I'd like to put a disclaimer, volume will be in liters as I have no clue what a gallon is, nor which gallon to choose on a converter, and the same goes with dimensions, which will appear in meters or centimeters!
About 3 years ago (I am now 28), I came upon a few piranhas in a tank in some petshop, that seemed miserable, but that also started my hobby (or should I call it an obsession now?
).
Ever since that day, I wanted my own piranhas. I didn't want anything else, but alas, I didn't have the money or time to even think the project through.
And as time passed by, I am glad I didn't, back then.
Last year (November 2), I got hit by a car, leading to spending the following 8 months at home, six of which were in my bed.
That gave me a LOT of time to think it through, and with no expense since I couldn't go out, other than food and rent (anything medical was paid by the insurance, yay accident on the way home from work \o/).
I stocked up about 2000, and received 4000 as a "preemptive paiment" from the insurances.
Needless to say, I finally could go for my "dream", and while I expected to only spend about a thousand, I still had plenty enough, and thank god, I still do.
With both legs mostly functionning, I found myself a tank.
Very cheap, much bigger than I expected.
Which, again, is a good thing, after some extensive reading, I found out a Piranha needs about 150L to which you can add 100L per additional Piranha...
God, did I imagine how complicated it could be! Even the kind of Piranha was a pain in my bottom untill I figured it out.
I got my 600L tank (200x50x60cm), and decided to get myself 6 Pygocentrus Nattereri.
But meh, that's kinda "common" even though you don't see many people with Piranhas, so I found myself wild ones...
What a pleasure!
With my tank, the setup and the built in rocky decoration, the 6 Wold Pygos, and quite a bit of plants (Who woulda thunk, Piranhas are shy and need hiding places!), I thought I'd be happy, and I was!
...Untill I saw that poor little buddy, a Platydoras Costatus, which I added to the tank, after enough reading to ensure about 50% survability to the little kittyfish. (50% is a whole lot with a small shoal of Piranhas...)
But "Mr Meowmeow" (He's the only one with a name, I promise) would not suffice to keep my tank free of algae and remains of food!
I then bought myself a couple Ancistruses (An albino and a black), again, safe picks, armored and hide most of the time... And about 15 Caridina Japonica, which I won't discuss because who cares, they're common shrimps
Oh, but then I forgot, before my Pygos arrived, I got myself 10 cardinals, which I thought would make the cycling faster, which it did, but in the end, I didn't need to, as I had to wait a whole lot of time for my Pygos to arrive from Peru.
Expecting them to be eaten in a matter of days, it turns out then chased them for "fun" but didn't eat many if any of them (Cardinals are stupid enough to die stuck between decoration and the side of my tank -_-).
Seeing as the cohabitation was going well, I couldn't resist those 10 wild Red Noses that were at the store I found my kittyfish, and GOD are those fast and obviously really wild!
A months later, as my tank was quietly living its life, I started seeing with my volume, my hiding places, my plants and the areas of life, what I could add with full knowledge of the fact anything put with Piranhas has a 90% chance of dying in a matter of days.
I then decided to add some crawfishes, the expensive kind, y'know, the blue and red ones, the white crazy ones, and they are really pretty!
Except it seems changing armor makes them delicious little meals (and still as expensive -_-), which my Piranhas decided to not miss a single bit of.
The crawfishes are out the window...
I then decided to try a little experiment... I'm not an expert, I can only experiment if I want viable sources, right?
I added 2 Metynnis Argenteus, being serrasalmidae, I figured they'd maybe get along?
The second they were in, the Pygos started chasing them, which was unfortunate, because all the poor Silver Dollars wanted to do was to stay with their cousins!
Appears after a couple of days, a fin or two a little bitten, they are now family!
They eat together, they chase little Cardinals and Rasboras (Yep, I added some of those too, they're too pretty, the Galaxy ones anyway), in fact, those flower pickers even try to steal the fish and other frozen crawfishes I give my Pygos, FROM THEIR MOUTH! Jesus, go eat your salad and leave them in piece, little buggers...
Anyway, so far so good, no casualties, and my Pygos are getting quite big... So big one of them hit himself against a rock, and got his eye injured, and is now blind from one of them...
But hey, that's what happens when you don't look both sides! (No wait, that's me...)
The space, added to the way it's built gave me some more room for tankmates, however big the number seems to be, I can guarantee you, it's NOT crowded. (People tend to judge easilly, I'm just putting a disclaimer here!)
I added a Farlowella Acus (cause it looks funny and 600L is a lot to clear for those damn shrimps!), a second Platydora (cause they're cute), 2 Calamoichthys Calabaricus (God I love my snakie fishies...), and a couple more algae cleaners.
My tank was so close to be done, so damn close, all I needed was 5 Pantodon Buchholzi, and one goddam Chaca (Chaca or Bankanensi)...
Impossible, unfindable (if that's even a word), nowhere, not a single place in Belgium had them or could order them... I was unhappy, I needed them!
Searching through the interwebz, I found a delivering place, in Belgium, but not quite close enough to go have a look, and I figured why not... Looked up the reviews, all bad...
GODDAM IT, I WANT MY PANTODONS!
So I ordered them anyway... They arrived, all in one piece, four of them, wild ones, ranging from the size of a thumb to the size of a bigger thumb! (I'm funny ain't I? :O)
They are so graceful, so prettily ugly, or uglily pretty, whichever you think applies the best...
My Chaca was still impossible to find...
Searching, every dealer, every place that fills the dealers, everywhere, untill I came across Channas...
Channa Bleheri is probably one of the cutest thing I've ever seen, and they interact with you!
They recognize me when I enter my bedroom, they dance when I come with food... I love them
Oh yes, that means I bought myself another tank for those... Ah well, it's only a 100L right? And I'll only keep 2 of them when my 3 pairs finally found a mate for life, and I've already found the people who'll keep the 4 others!
Yeah, yeah, those needed mates too... But I still don't have my Chaca.
Anyway, I got them 2 Atyopsis Moluccensis to clean the water, 5 Beaufortia Leveretti (Or I think that was the name, they're black and look like small rays...) and a few more of the goddam shrimps...
No fish tankmates, besides the one Macropodus (A couple would have made the male territorial, which I don't want in a small tank), my Channas like it quiet and peaceful, and I'm fine with that, I sleep in the same room after all!
Anyway, today as I got myself a few more Pantodons (Surface is 200x50cm, I have room for a bit of those...), and it appears the Chaca I had finally found didn't arrive, because the dealer didn't want to sell them, as they are wild species, and they seemed to all be dying, so he's giving it a bit of time...
So close...
I will put up pictures if this seems to be of anyone's interest, and if anyone can think of the name of a catfish a little like the Chaca, that won't grow bigger than 25cm (I don't want him eating my Pygos if they were to be too curious >.>), please let me know in case this Chaca I found isn't going to arrive in the end!
I hope you enjoyed the reading like I did the writing, I didn't put a tl;dr because there really isn't one.
Madou
I happenned to come across this website by searching infos on a specific fish which appears to not be compatible with neither of my tanks, and decided that, with such a cool name, I could perhaps register and see if I can share my hobby along with other people of the like!
As a first step, I'd like to put a disclaimer, volume will be in liters as I have no clue what a gallon is, nor which gallon to choose on a converter, and the same goes with dimensions, which will appear in meters or centimeters!
About 3 years ago (I am now 28), I came upon a few piranhas in a tank in some petshop, that seemed miserable, but that also started my hobby (or should I call it an obsession now?
). Ever since that day, I wanted my own piranhas. I didn't want anything else, but alas, I didn't have the money or time to even think the project through.
And as time passed by, I am glad I didn't, back then.
Last year (November 2), I got hit by a car, leading to spending the following 8 months at home, six of which were in my bed.
That gave me a LOT of time to think it through, and with no expense since I couldn't go out, other than food and rent (anything medical was paid by the insurance, yay accident on the way home from work \o/).
I stocked up about 2000, and received 4000 as a "preemptive paiment" from the insurances.
Needless to say, I finally could go for my "dream", and while I expected to only spend about a thousand, I still had plenty enough, and thank god, I still do.
With both legs mostly functionning, I found myself a tank.
Very cheap, much bigger than I expected.
Which, again, is a good thing, after some extensive reading, I found out a Piranha needs about 150L to which you can add 100L per additional Piranha...
God, did I imagine how complicated it could be! Even the kind of Piranha was a pain in my bottom untill I figured it out.
I got my 600L tank (200x50x60cm), and decided to get myself 6 Pygocentrus Nattereri.
But meh, that's kinda "common" even though you don't see many people with Piranhas, so I found myself wild ones...
What a pleasure!
With my tank, the setup and the built in rocky decoration, the 6 Wold Pygos, and quite a bit of plants (Who woulda thunk, Piranhas are shy and need hiding places!), I thought I'd be happy, and I was!
...Untill I saw that poor little buddy, a Platydoras Costatus, which I added to the tank, after enough reading to ensure about 50% survability to the little kittyfish. (50% is a whole lot with a small shoal of Piranhas...)
But "Mr Meowmeow" (He's the only one with a name, I promise) would not suffice to keep my tank free of algae and remains of food!
I then bought myself a couple Ancistruses (An albino and a black), again, safe picks, armored and hide most of the time... And about 15 Caridina Japonica, which I won't discuss because who cares, they're common shrimps
Oh, but then I forgot, before my Pygos arrived, I got myself 10 cardinals, which I thought would make the cycling faster, which it did, but in the end, I didn't need to, as I had to wait a whole lot of time for my Pygos to arrive from Peru.
Expecting them to be eaten in a matter of days, it turns out then chased them for "fun" but didn't eat many if any of them (Cardinals are stupid enough to die stuck between decoration and the side of my tank -_-).
Seeing as the cohabitation was going well, I couldn't resist those 10 wild Red Noses that were at the store I found my kittyfish, and GOD are those fast and obviously really wild!
A months later, as my tank was quietly living its life, I started seeing with my volume, my hiding places, my plants and the areas of life, what I could add with full knowledge of the fact anything put with Piranhas has a 90% chance of dying in a matter of days.
I then decided to add some crawfishes, the expensive kind, y'know, the blue and red ones, the white crazy ones, and they are really pretty!
Except it seems changing armor makes them delicious little meals (and still as expensive -_-), which my Piranhas decided to not miss a single bit of.
The crawfishes are out the window...
I then decided to try a little experiment... I'm not an expert, I can only experiment if I want viable sources, right?
I added 2 Metynnis Argenteus, being serrasalmidae, I figured they'd maybe get along?
The second they were in, the Pygos started chasing them, which was unfortunate, because all the poor Silver Dollars wanted to do was to stay with their cousins!
Appears after a couple of days, a fin or two a little bitten, they are now family!
They eat together, they chase little Cardinals and Rasboras (Yep, I added some of those too, they're too pretty, the Galaxy ones anyway), in fact, those flower pickers even try to steal the fish and other frozen crawfishes I give my Pygos, FROM THEIR MOUTH! Jesus, go eat your salad and leave them in piece, little buggers...
Anyway, so far so good, no casualties, and my Pygos are getting quite big... So big one of them hit himself against a rock, and got his eye injured, and is now blind from one of them...
But hey, that's what happens when you don't look both sides! (No wait, that's me...)
The space, added to the way it's built gave me some more room for tankmates, however big the number seems to be, I can guarantee you, it's NOT crowded. (People tend to judge easilly, I'm just putting a disclaimer here!)
I added a Farlowella Acus (cause it looks funny and 600L is a lot to clear for those damn shrimps!), a second Platydora (cause they're cute), 2 Calamoichthys Calabaricus (God I love my snakie fishies...), and a couple more algae cleaners.
My tank was so close to be done, so damn close, all I needed was 5 Pantodon Buchholzi, and one goddam Chaca (Chaca or Bankanensi)...
Impossible, unfindable (if that's even a word), nowhere, not a single place in Belgium had them or could order them... I was unhappy, I needed them!
Searching through the interwebz, I found a delivering place, in Belgium, but not quite close enough to go have a look, and I figured why not... Looked up the reviews, all bad...
GODDAM IT, I WANT MY PANTODONS!
So I ordered them anyway... They arrived, all in one piece, four of them, wild ones, ranging from the size of a thumb to the size of a bigger thumb! (I'm funny ain't I? :O)
They are so graceful, so prettily ugly, or uglily pretty, whichever you think applies the best...
My Chaca was still impossible to find...
Searching, every dealer, every place that fills the dealers, everywhere, untill I came across Channas...
Channa Bleheri is probably one of the cutest thing I've ever seen, and they interact with you!
They recognize me when I enter my bedroom, they dance when I come with food... I love them
Oh yes, that means I bought myself another tank for those... Ah well, it's only a 100L right? And I'll only keep 2 of them when my 3 pairs finally found a mate for life, and I've already found the people who'll keep the 4 others!
Yeah, yeah, those needed mates too... But I still don't have my Chaca.
Anyway, I got them 2 Atyopsis Moluccensis to clean the water, 5 Beaufortia Leveretti (Or I think that was the name, they're black and look like small rays...) and a few more of the goddam shrimps...
No fish tankmates, besides the one Macropodus (A couple would have made the male territorial, which I don't want in a small tank), my Channas like it quiet and peaceful, and I'm fine with that, I sleep in the same room after all!
Anyway, today as I got myself a few more Pantodons (Surface is 200x50cm, I have room for a bit of those...), and it appears the Chaca I had finally found didn't arrive, because the dealer didn't want to sell them, as they are wild species, and they seemed to all be dying, so he's giving it a bit of time...
So close...
I will put up pictures if this seems to be of anyone's interest, and if anyone can think of the name of a catfish a little like the Chaca, that won't grow bigger than 25cm (I don't want him eating my Pygos if they were to be too curious >.>), please let me know in case this Chaca I found isn't going to arrive in the end!
I hope you enjoyed the reading like I did the writing, I didn't put a tl;dr because there really isn't one.
Madou
