hey there everyone. just a quick Q: is there anything i can keep with my 5 red belly pirana that wont get eaten? i bought a pleco but was afraid to put him in the tank, any advise anyone?
is there anything i can keep with my RBP's?
- Thread starter WorldsParadox
- Start date
plecos sometimes work out, sometimes they dont. there are no real tank mate decisions that are guaranteed. jus dont puth fish with them that you might end up missing. oscars are a possibility, exo's n tetras. but again, no guarantees.
not to sure about rbp's but if they have already established their terratory in the tank i wouldnt advise andding any other fish...
yea, they are established, but they are very easly spooked fish, even putting in defrosted feeders in their tank will scare em for about 5 min or so...but i dont think im going to try anything, i hate loosing any of my fish!
i put a large pleco in my tank with my 4 RBP. the pleco is about 12" and the P's have been in the tank for about 6 months. the pleco just took over. if the P's get in his way he just hits them with his tail. i think when you introduce a pleco that is way bigger than them they dont mess with it... thats just my experience..
i dissagree rxracer. big or small, if a piranha decides to make a snack out of it, they will. people who have had a pleco in the tank for 10 months, all of a sudden find a eaten pleco 1 morning. its random and tank mates are never a guarantee. piranhas are just to unpredictable. but on a side note, i have a pleco in my rbp tank, its been in there for 4 months. still doin good.
well i have had a 4-5" pleco in my p tank ever since i got them, when i got my P's they were only quarter size. they have never messed with him at all. than i just introduced my big 12" pleco like 1.5 months ago with no problems. i did once try to introduce a smaller pleco about 3" and they were going after it so i pulled it out. i think a lot of it is size, but thats just my opinion...
i too grew mine from dime size. they usually take plecos as tankmates better then other species. size does have something to do with it since plecos get more defensive with size. they have spines all over n thrash hard when they get pickd on. if piranhas feel it isn't worth the effort, they wont bother.
I can tell you in a tank of 7 rbp's about 4-5 inches i had a pleco about 3.5 inches that grew to over 7inches and i swapped it out with a new one around the 3 inch mark. So far so good. In keeping P's inthe past I did have a pleco in the tank with no issues. One day I got the bright idea to add a slightly smaller albino pleco to help with the cleanup. Next morning I had bits of albino left. At this point it seems they figured out a pleco was foodlike and within a few days I no longer had my original pleco. B( Lessons learned. You take your chances adding anything as a tankmate with a fish that turns on its own.
I agree with the above. But if you have a big enough tank you can try pacus. Worked for me for about 6 months.. but lost my RBs one night to electrical failure. I you choose to go ahead make sure you get Red bellied pacus and at least twice the size of RBPs.