Cariba's & Red Belly's

[jones]

i added my caribas to the big 300gallon, to shoal with my red bellys...
so far they are hangin out in harmony... but im watching them and keeping them well fed for now...

[Melody]

Beautiful! I'm assuming the only way to find out if they're not living in harmony is to wake up to missing fish & lots of bones? Or do you get some warning?

[jones]

yeah, you get some warnings...

they will argue and fight amoung eachother if they are not getting along, mostly its because of territory desputes...

when adding more piranhas to a shoal, always lower the water level at least 50%, change all the decorations in the tank by either removing them all, or making sure everything is changed... this is to disrupt there territory they have all skated out, piranhas dont like new things coming into their environment, and anything new that comes in the tank is usually looked at as food, changing everything causes them to huddle together for support and with no fish having its own spot to defend, it allows the new additions to mingle with the group and spot out a chunk of tank space for territory along with the others...
after you add your new fish, refill the tank, and watch them closley...

pygos usually all shoal together no problems, but piranhas are very unpredictable and when adding new fish, you should always do it when you have a chance to keep a close eye on them afterwords...

any disputes you'll see in fin nipping and increasing aggression towards the new guys... you can change around the scenery once more or a few more times to cause them to huddle up again and this will usually stop it, as most fights are simply caused over piranhas deffending their turff in the aquarium...

but its always something you really have to play by ear, no one ever knows whats really going to happen adding more piranhas to a shoal... but there has been lots of success using this method of lowering the water and changing the scenery...

all the best, ill get some more pix up
jones

[CACAdmin]

Fascinating and very helpful information. Could the same method could be tried if problems were to develop between a couple of tankmates?... giving them all a diversion and something more important to focus on... namely staking out new territory?

[Melody]

I've heard of rearranging the tank, but I've never heard of lowering the waterline. Neat tip!

[jones]

yeah, i always use that tactic and i've had nothing but success adding new additions to shoals...

they are still getting along great and i couldnt be happier... heres some updated pix...

http://www.massiveaggression.ca/pics/personal/mar24th1.jpg

http://www.massiveaggression.ca/pics/personal/mar24th2.jpg

the big guy: "motorhead" he's about 8" maybe
http://www.massiveaggression.ca/pics/personal/mar24th3.jpg

http://www.massiveaggression.ca/pics/personal/mar24th4.jpg

when its feeding time they all swarm the from of the glass waiting for me to drop in chow... they also do it when they are hungry and i walk in the door... so they let me know when dinner time is, hahaah, they deffinitally can see the food dish full of fish fillets when i walk in with it thou, they go nuts... hahah

all the best
jones

[Melody]

Glad to hear its working out for you! Kinda hard to think of their behaviour as cute, but that's what their reaction to you & food brings to mind...lol.

Don't tell them I said that. :wideeyed:

[Sobe]

cool shoal. I remembered when I had my Caribe shoal, a few years back when not alot of people had caribes in BC and everyone know's what everyone have as far as the "exotic" piranha goes.

that's about the same size when I got my guys and few months later just went ballistic I was down to one tern and one caribe lost the rest due to cannibalism. I still have the 2 of them in seperate tank and they are pushing 10" in length now. They loose their humeral spot when they get older and so is the red on their belly

[ChrissyFishy]

How big would a tank have to be for such aggressive and big fish? I don't think I will be getting them but I wonder how others keep them. I got tired of the oscar taking so much tank up and I bet these take more!!!!!

[Katalyst]

Great photos! Oddly enough I have to do the same exact thing with my goldfish when adding a new tankmate. Other then lowering the water line, I have to change out about 75% of the water instead.