ID: Spilo or Other - Did I get an oddball

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Otherone

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 2, 2009
2,683
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Lancaster,PA USA
I bought him labeled as Spilopleura but from what i've read these guys are real hard to come by @ 1-2" it's real hard to get good pics. Some identifying features - Silvery to yellowish body, more yellowish towards the bottom - blueish purple sheen head - Rhom body shape. One thing that's throwin' me off is the tail fin 2 black lines............maybe juvi coloration ??? Well lets see what you think...............Also had to include my other new growout pick up :headbang2

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that's a mac.
spilo looks like this
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there are actually 3 fish there. first two are freshly imported so they looked a little beat up. the shape of the back is because they are underfed. the 3rd one was well taken cared in home aquarium for a while.
 
some times you can keep macs with other macs but I haven't any luck. I had 5 in a 90g and now down to 3, one is about half an inch bigger than the others and is relentless.

Too be honest one probably one of the most aggressive piranhas I have kept. Not scared of anything unless I am doing a huge rescape of their tank
 
Sorry for the crappy pics - hes really small I just can't get good closeup shots. That's a 10 gal tank he's in and it's still real hard to find'em. After reading previous posts I kinda expected him to turn out to be Mac, even before I bought' em. I'm just fine with that. This was only the 2nd Gold P I ever seen sold locally - this price I think was salty at $40 but if you calculate shipping from another location $40 probably about right. Theres Zero chance in hell of gettin' a shoal locally. Last Shoal I bought/for sale locally was over 10 years ago goin' on 20. My LFS choices have dropped to like 3 locations and 2 are petsmarts. That fish place only carries single specimens now after a 10 year drought of Piranha sales. The prices are rediculous.
RBP - 2-3" $80 - super salty. Anyways not sure what you guys are seein' or what your not seein' in the crappy pics that says NOT Spilo, sure would like to know. That Fish is a good reputable dealer with same as suppliers but wouldn't be the 1st time a fish was mis-labeled especially to the untrained eye. He's already eatin' krill and silver slide chunks and seems to be quite the aggressive fish - already chargin' the glass -seems to be well on his way to being an interesting healthy wet pet. Thanks for all your posts!
 
Macs are often called gold spilo so it is very possible your lfs just went with that name. but that doesn't make it a true spilo.
the color of the fish in your pics are dead giveaway and shape of the fish is also different. (sometimes macs kind of look like pygo IMO)
 
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