Hey I recently picked up a 5 inch maculatus. He is five inches , I have him in with 6 3 inch red bellies and a small shoal of exodons, as well as convict fry for extra to keep them from turning in each other. I have heard of people shoaling macs but has anyone every had experience mixing a mac with a rbp shoal? I know it's risky, I have a couple weeks off work and have been watching bon stop, will separate if I must. Also, are macs aggressive or just predatory? So far there's been no issues or changes other than the Red bellies tend to swim lower mid level on the tank instead of right on the bottom, I assume this is cuz the gold makes them nervous as he is new. Please don't hate I know this is risky and I have the means to separate if need be . THANKS!!!
Serrasalmus Maculatus need info
- Thread starter Deputydirty
- Start date
your maculatus needs its own tank...its ok for now but eventually be a problem. regarding the exodons...depending how big your tank is, it will also be a problem. if you have a big tank you can house the reds with the exodons but even with that they would nip on your reds. i would separate the exodons as well and just keep it strictly a pygo tank.
In my experience, pygos shoal with pygos, serra's are solitary. Macs can be shoaled and breed in a tank but I wouldn't mix the two there will be issues...
What issues do you guys forsee? I read about a study on OPEFE where a guy housed A shoal of red bellies with 4 caribes 4 sanchezi and a mac, the end result was the mac needed to be removed because the sanchezi were preying on its fins. The conclusion as to whether it would work or not was cloudy but the Red bellies and the mac didn't have any issues which gave me hope.
I also know a guy who claims to have a similiar thing but with a conpressus in with them as well n it's been good for years. But ya ...what exactly is it do you think will happen, is it the mac preying on the Reds or vice versa?
you will never know the outcome unti you try it yourself. even if you ask 50 piranha owners they cannot predict what is going to happen to your tank. all we are trying to tell you from our experience this is WHAT might happen. if you still want to go ahead then by all means do it...it's your tank after all. piranhas have different personalities thats why they are all unpredictable so asking around of what the outcome would be will never be accurate. as big shawn has mentioned you can school spilos. it is the only serrasalmus specie you can shoal. i have done it and it was a success but i wasn't very successful breeding them.
I can't say for sure, but i believe at some point either the reds may eat him/her or it may take a large bite out of one of the reds causing the others to join in, But there can be exceptions, I guess....
Thanks guys, I will keep you all posted. Fingers crossed-i have two weeks off work, I will watch them avidly and separate if I sense anything fishy..
I had a 8-9” pygo in a tank with all sorts of other fish, including Oscar, pacu, and some cichlids.
it worked for a good long time 6-8 months. Then one day the cichlids had a spawn and started protecting the eggs. When the female tried to protect her eggs from the pygo, one day it had enough of her pecking at it. So it bit her face off. She only had half of one eye and most of it jaw was missing.
I feel like the p was fine but the cichlid was a bit too feisty and the natural response for a fish to go jaw to jaw would be to bite down I suppose. But other than that it seemed to work out.
the moral of the story is, when aggression happens with these guys, even if it is a one time beef, that’s often all it takes for it to be lethal. There’s no real middle ground if they decide something in your tank is not supposed to be there it has the tools to end whatever IN One decent bite. But we all already know this lol
it worked for a good long time 6-8 months. Then one day the cichlids had a spawn and started protecting the eggs. When the female tried to protect her eggs from the pygo, one day it had enough of her pecking at it. So it bit her face off. She only had half of one eye and most of it jaw was missing.
I feel like the p was fine but the cichlid was a bit too feisty and the natural response for a fish to go jaw to jaw would be to bite down I suppose. But other than that it seemed to work out.
the moral of the story is, when aggression happens with these guys, even if it is a one time beef, that’s often all it takes for it to be lethal. There’s no real middle ground if they decide something in your tank is not supposed to be there it has the tools to end whatever IN One decent bite. But we all already know this lol
Very true man , lesson heeded thank you. As long as it's not the gold that gets eaten I will be able to live with myself (although I obviously don't want anything to even get hurt). Through a bunch of convict fry in for food and most survived, although they're all missing the bottom half of their tails and the bigger,more aggressive convicts are all missing most of their faces as well from trying exactly what you just stated- lip locking with a p.
