Vendor Hocus Pocus - new Pygo's

[Diogenes]

its not a pygo

most likely a breeding s. spilopleura.

you see how rhombeus look more rhomboid or angular when young and as they get large their heads become more blunt? same with spilopleura or most other serrasalmus when they get over 10"

most piranhas turn very black turning breeding season.

in an old tfh book, there were pictures of this black pygo. that we think were breeding color of p. cariba

Wes

I guess it's possible but this doesn't look like S. spilopluera (or any other serra) in breeding dress to me.

If I'm not mistaken, according to OPEFE (Frank Magallanes) these fish are P. nattereri. They exhibit variant morphology due to geographic isolation, much like Ternetzi (yellow piranhas) are actually P. nattereri as well.

They look like pygos to me, and I've seen other pics of these guys described as P nattereri as well.

I'd love to have a shoal of these too. Hard to say whether or not the little ones will look like this when they grow. Assuming these are actually from a shoal of black RBP's and share the same genes, we don't know if there's something in the environment in the area where this species is endemic that cause this interesting morphology. Might be the same fish, but growing up in your tank, it may just grow to look like any other RBP.

Cool stuff though. I'd like to have some.