Going to be picking up some Caribe from Aquascape next week Are there and catfish that will be safe?
Tankmate for Caribe
- Thread starter water.life
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AquaAlex1993
Guest
With piranhas, that is a very tough question to answer. As usual, it is hard to predict how each piranha will act. Pygocentrus species tend to be the most tank mate friendly and people have gotten away keeping dithers and bottom dwellers with them. At New England Aquarium, they have an assortment of plecos and armored catfish and dither tetras in with their red belly piranha and at Mystic Aquarium they have leoporinus, and red tail byrcon with their piranha. But those tanks are HUGE so the fish have plenty of room to retreat, and the leoporinus and brycon have enough aggression to handle their own.
I would suggest going with armed catfish like rapheal, irwini, and plecos. Something that has sharp scales. Make sure to have some hiding places and a place designed for catfish. You can add as many cats as you wish, I would because you never know if the P's will strike. For other fish, stick with tetras as dithers. Black skirts, bunanus aires, exodons, etc. When I kept caribe they seemed to leave those tetras alone. Good luck and post some pics for me, I LOVE CARIBE!
I would suggest going with armed catfish like rapheal, irwini, and plecos. Something that has sharp scales. Make sure to have some hiding places and a place designed for catfish. You can add as many cats as you wish, I would because you never know if the P's will strike. For other fish, stick with tetras as dithers. Black skirts, bunanus aires, exodons, etc. When I kept caribe they seemed to leave those tetras alone. Good luck and post some pics for me, I LOVE CARIBE!
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AquaAlex1993
Guest
I should also add that you should add the catfish and plecos first, let them get used to the tank, figure out their hiding spaces, then get the tetras, and make the caribe the last additions unless you plan on adding more pygos.
Wow I cant believe we got ppl in this thread recommending piranha community tanks... First of all, why the hell would you recommend a catfish bc you saw it at an aquarium? That's hella stupid imo... wow just shocking at these responses yo.
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AquaAlex1993
Guest
I would say no, sooner or later it would get destroyed. It's a very difficult situation to mix anything with P'S... but no single solitary fish is the same in the hobby, some piranhas will have different personalities.
I have seen dither fish work (tetras, barbs, etc) and pleco.
Don't get attached to any other fish that is not a piranha IT MAY get destroyed.
What are ppl?
I never heard the word hella..... hehe J/K.
Slang is kewl!
Each piranha will have different personalities, just like hobby. Not all with have the same or be the same. It is fair enough to point out that I certainly would NOT add a fish I love in a tank with P's or fish that cost too much.
Dithers are reccomended because they are active which will entire the P's to be more active, because in the wild the fish hide from predators when there are no fish in sight or when they see something bigger. In an aquarium, that big predator can be anything.. the light, us, etc. But by having dithers (tetras, barbs, anything that can be replaced cheaply) will draw out your piranha's and have them become more active, that's all I am saying. Your right, you don't have too and it seems crazy, but if you want an active piranha this is the way to do it.
Like I said, I by any means ain't say going out and getting cichlids and other fish and putting them in a P tank expect them to get along because they won't. Dithers are for activity purposes only and maybe a quick snack or fun.
OPEFE is an archived website of information by ichthyologists who study the serrasalmidae group of fish. I get most of my info from this website on each species, although I do have to say some of the info is a bit outdated. Red hooks have NEVER been a Metynnis species, not even close. But everything else is good.
From that website, comes this article.... it just depends on the individual piranhas.
https://msu.edu/~torresm2/piranhasspecies.html
https://opefe.com/opefe_research_page.html