questions before i buy

[ronin_man]

hey guys, im fairly new to pikes and wanted to do a bit of research on them but have failed to get the info im looking for. When i was younger(like 10 or 12) i had a pike in a 125 (not sure what kind he was) and right now im have my largest tank, a 150 as my ray tank. i have a 75 gal sitting around and i was wanting to know if there are many if any types of pikes i could keep 2 of in this size tank ?

and also if anyone could give me a short list of the more standard pikes and there max size that would be great too !
like i said i wanted to do a little reasearch on this before i jumped back into pikes and i figured this would be the best place to get some info.

thanx for the help in advanced.

 

[its_an_obsession]

pikes from the saxatilis species would probably be the best because there alittle smaller than the other pikes and max out at about 12 inches and often alittle shorter. your best bet for having two is to get a male/female pair but otherwise you will likely not be able to have two pikes in the same tank. they seem to not like other pikes and then its attack mode.
one of the more common saxatilis pikes is the sveni... pretty much any pike labeled as a spangled something is saxatilis so thats a good place to start if your getting one from a lfs

 

[ronin_man]

so i wouldnt really want to be keeping any pike in a 75 then...
ok thanx

 

[pwmin]

dwarves and saxs will be fine. IDK how you got that out of his reply. Some larger ones would probably be fine, too.

 

[ronin_man]

well if they are going to get to 12 inch thats not exactly much swimming room in a 75 gal is it ?

 

[pwmin]

i would have no problems w/ a 12" pike in a 4x1.5

 

[its_an_obsession]

they arent big swimmers. there not like bala sharks or silver dollars that just swim back and forth all day so they dont need as much room to swim. 75 gallons are plenty big enough.

 

[ronin_man]

oh ya? i just thought they were fair swimmers, like i said before i had one when i was young and i thought i remembered him making full use of the 125. that was years ago though

 

[killerfish]

Saxatilis would be good most top out around 10'' only a few will get to 12''

http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/5491/spangledpikes.html heres a good write up on saxatilis theres alot more info on pikes at this site look at the species list they have

 

[perfect_prefect]

from personal experience go for 3 sveni from the saxatilis group like they said, and hope to get a m/f pair up out of there then sell off or relocate somehow the oddball. then put in plenty of cover, like pvc pipes or caves the female can fit into to get away from the attentions of the male.