Mixing Piranhas

[Rui]

Who here has (or have in the past) mixed Piranhas with other fish? I have heard that it can be done successfully.

I have a 'black' Rhom (well, that was what it was sold as anyways). I hear these are impossible to mix, as they are notorious fin and scale eaters (just from what I read and not from experience).

I am thinking of getting some Piranhas and adding a few to my Central American cichlid tank. 230 gallon - tons of rock and wood, sand substrate. Not a brightly lit tank, so the Pirhanas will hopefully not be too skittish.

Can this be done? I am assuming that there will always be a chance the pirhana will take a nip at one of the cichlids, but I have no idea if this is extremely rare if the cichlids are larger/more dominant or if it is only a matter of time. I definitely don't want a large show-fish male to be disfigured by a nasty bite. I am relatively new to pirhanas (the Rhom being the first and only so far).

From what I have read in the forums, ATF would be a safer choice, but I have seen only 1 Vittatus in my whole life, so chances are I won't get one..

Any info/experience shared would be appreciated!

 

[piranha45]

ATFs cannot be kept in 240gs for life. They are too active, they would destroy themselves running into the glass as they get older.

When keeping piranhas with other fish, there are NOT any guarantees. There have been numerous instances where cichlids go out of their way to try and jawlock with a terrified piranha... the cichlid loses its mouth, the piranha gets needlessly stressed, and things just dont work out

I actually plan on trying this setup myself in the distant future when I have more resources available to me, but losing fish due to such mishaps is not a major issue for me.

 

[CentralMayhem]

i did it in my 300 with a 12" dovii a 8"carpinte, !0"crenicichla sp."venezuela. , V. synspilum female at 6" and i put in 7 baby rbp's. 5 of them were eaten before they got to good size. The 2 remaining ended up at around 7" and were in no way aggressive, but all of my fish except the pike had huge pieces of fins and scales missing. as soon as i can download my pics from a disk ill put em in the forum. youll enjoy em for sure. the cichlids chased the rbp's when aggrivated, but as soon as they turned their backs they were nipped. perfect circles gone with every bite.

 

[Rui]

That's what I was afraid of..Thanks for the advice!

I got the idea when I was in Chicago and visited the Shedd Aquarium. They had a fairly large school of RBP in a huge tank with large oscars. I didn't see the Oscars with too many scars. I will give up on that idea. I really hate having fish with missing pieces.

 

[rayman45]

my boy marco had 3 rbp with his oscars fd and a few more fish

 

[Neo Baron]

the answer is no.

 

[etb]

It won't work for long I can't even keep any Pleco's in with mine but I keep trying anyway but there always gone the next day.

 

[AAK350]

hey i had 3 black pirahanas in a 100 g with 2 plecos they killed them and now they are going after each other i was told that u can only have one 2 every 300 gals but they are only 3-4 inchs is that true i just got into the pirahana.........thank you ahead of time

 

[JD7.62]

Unless you have a huge aquarium, like 500 gallons or more I would not try mixing rhoms with each other, even at just a few inches in size.

The only fish that I have had live with my pygos (2 piraya, 1 nat, and 1 caribe) is a large stripped ralph cat. He has survived with out a single nip and it has been over six months.

I have heard/seen people with HUGE rhoms sat 14"+ being kept successfully with many small tetras. The theory behind this is: "why run a mile for a french fry when you can wait and have a whopper dropped in your lap?"

 

[CrypticSins]

Well, aside from the fact that my elongatus is apparently different from most, seeing as I can have a dozen guppies swimming around just fine for the past few months with nothing happening to ONE. I also decided to try putting a few other cheap fish in as trials, long finned zebra Dinos was the lastest I added, and once again, the Elongatus is noting paying them a bit of attention, I also have some neon tetras ( 2 ) , and some Glow Light Tetras ( 2 ), and a common Alage Eater in there. All of these other fish have had no problems mixing with my elong, and it's very shocking and very very very odd, as Elongs have the rep. of being VERY intolerant to tank mates. So I guess it "CAN" happen, just reguardless of a species reputation they are subject to having their own personalities. While I am certainly aware that one day my Elong may just go on a killing rampage and all will be corrected, I find that observing that other fish activities while being in a tank with a piranha is kinda.... "neat". For example... When I put in a feeder goldfish ( which I am about to stop doing before too long ) the guppies will actually school together and attack the goldfish kinda trying to corner him with the piranha, being as they will feast off the remains after the piranha has his fill. And it's a pattern with them, they corner the goldfish in with the piranha, and will literally hold the goldfish there for long periods of time. It's very odd to sit and watch. I'm going to make a new thread with this observation as well to get other peoples thoughts