pirahna are over rated.

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You may think that, but with Piranhas, 6 months is like if you had them for a week, they take a whole lot of patience for them to act normal.
 
I've never seen a pack of them do enough decent damage to make me think anything great. Some might like them but I know a certain pair of R. Dev./Trimac, male and female that when breeding, don't care how big would certainly pummel them before any disembowlment occured. Those two made me bleed plenty of times when I would do something as silly and quick as move a rock....not to mention cleaning the tank. They weren't even bother by nets trying to catch them, that was just something else to tare up for them. They were a healthy 8 in. plus though :evil_lol:
 
eL ChiNo LoCo said:
You may think that, but with Piranhas, 6 months is like if you had them for a week, they take a whole lot of patience for them to act normal.
That's what I heard.
This chick that used to work with me.....
wait...her husband used to work at my store then she...

eer..
anyway..

They had a shoal of 'em and it took over a year for their P's to even eat durring day light hours in front of them. After that, they where more active and agressive then ever.:)
 
I thought piranhas would win by a mile... but not by some of these replies.

What's everyone's idea of the top 5 meanest fish? Assume single speciment only and that the fish are the same size... say 12".

This should be interesting.

S.
 
spawning pairs of cichlids, centrarchids, and other mid-sized nest guarders.

When not in breeding mode, there ain't any. There really isn't any one specie of fish out there that's guaranteed to be mean. Alot of people like to say the Asian Redtailed Catfish (http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Hemibagrus&speciesname=nemurus) is the worst, and I've heard plenty of morbid anecdotes in regards to them, but then I also hear reports of them getting beat down by regular old channel cats.

your question is frequently asked, and there really isn't a valid answer to it. You could always ask what the top 5 meanest fish are in YOUR EXPERIENCE.. but then that's hardly an absolute reference that anyone could use and expect to get reliable results from

jardini, dovii, smallmouth bass, undulated triggerfish, bowfin, red snakeheads, poecellids, green sunfish, trimacs, chipokae, H. fasciatus, beani, fahaka puffers, festae, damselfish... the list could go on a looong ways.

Do you know how many of the above fish I mentioned have an Undefeated record, out of all the accounts I've heard on all of them? None.

Some species of fish are definitely more aggressive than others, but when you're looking for the cream of the crop or whatnot, it depends on a given fish's individual personality, not the fish's specie


Alot of people regard the Texas cichlid to be a fairly unexceptional fish in the aggression department, and my own experiences correlate with this.
But then...

fruitbat said:
I can attest to Texas Cichlids having LOTS of 'personality'. A number of years ago I was snorkeling in the Devil's River near Del Rio, Texas. The water there is magnificently clean and clear. I was in about 6 feet of water and noticed an area on the bottom where all of the accumulated muck had been cleared away. Figuring it was a Largemouth Bass or Sunfish nesting area I swam up for a closer look.

Imagine my surprise when a large Texas Cichlid decided that I was TOO damned close to his house and attacked the faceplate of my diving mask. That blasted fish then turned and made another run at my mask and almost managed to knock it off. He didn't stop attacking until I backed away to a respectful distance.

These fish were aggressive enough to have their nest right in the middle of the river with absolutely no cover and to defend it against legions of small- to middle-sized gar in addition to sunfish and bass.

Now THAT is personality!!!

I don't know of any fish that would voraciously-- some would say suicidally-- attack a creature 100 times its own size.
 
you threw a dead piece of smelt in there and they ate it, I don't see what that proves, other than that they have impeccable jaws. Notice how the pleco looks fine and dandy and has probably been with them for months already, for example.
 
Does any one know how much and where i can get a red devil in calif.
 
not to take anything away from you because you do sound like you know what your on about having owned some exellant fish. But Piranha's sould never be bought because of there reputation of aggression. I have a breading pair of piranhas and have had them for some time if you only have the one piranha it's end of story you shouldn't ever keep piranhas on ther own keep them in pairs or more they are social creatures if you have more than one and you dont feel they are acting as they should be try getting a bigger tank as piranhas can get very depressed that maybe a reason why they are not acting aggressive as you would put it. Also should your fish be depressed (let's hope they ain't) make two water changes a week doing water changes stimulates the fish and hopefully it may perk them back up again. I hope you find the answers to your problem and if you didn't allready know what i have told you i hope it helps.
 
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