# MR.FREEZ's guide to



## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

*Piranha, red belly, or ???????*

Some "newbies" may stumble on to this site, look around and get all excited and run out and buy a the first thing that's look like a piranha. Be careful cause there's a few species of fish that look like a piranha and hopefully this will arm you with the knowledge you need to make a more educated purchase. Most commonly bought mistakenly as a red belly piranha is the red belly pacu. They are very similar looking but there is a couple things to look at that are fairly easy to recognize once you know what to look for.

The *profile of a piranha* is more "bulldog" lookin with their jaws slanted downward. With an under bite. Head and face seem to look bigger.









The *profile of a pacu* is more of a "retarded" look to it some would say. The jaws are parallel with the eyes, and the mouth opening looks smaller. With an over bite appearance. Head and face looks smaller.









*The tail of a piranha* looks different than a pacus also, the colors more often then not will go black, white or transparent, to black.









A *pacus tail* will look white or transparent to black.









Also notice the differences in the juvy stages of both fish. Spot patterns, body shape, head and face, and in the tail fins. 
*red belly piranha* 














*pacu*

Other piranha impostures are wimple piranhas. Even though they are not piranhas their behavior closely match them along with there appearance. They don't get all that big but they seem to resemble serra type of piranhas in the juvenile stages.
*wimple piranha* 









Heres one serra type of piranha that might resemble a wimple piranha, 
*serra compressus*.









Another imposture I think is the silver dollar. From the same family as piranhas but still not piranhas.
*silver dollar*









more piranha and pacu picture, thanks to NTcaribe
more pacus, thanks to traumatic
innes's wimple piranha profile
sorry illnino but this seemed like a good example
topic started by www.amalia.ro
a newbie question 
a newbie question
silver dollar info

picture credits go to 
Judazzz,mason999,and theres a few other but i cant remeber were the pictures came from just let me know for proper credits.


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

Wow Polar Boy, that's one awesome post you made








Thanks for your time and effort









Do you want me to pin this one until you are done gathering, adding and revising information. Let me know when you feel it's ready: I'll then make an article for the information section out of it...


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

Judazzz said:


> Wow Polar Boy, that's one awesome post you made
> 
> 
> 
> ...


leave it open a couple days for people to see if they can find better pictures and such

but im pretty much done workin on it

might add a couple link to more examples also if people find em









plus i want to give a chance to the pictures i forgot were they came from so people get

the proper credits









also i was think about a load warining for the dial up and 56k or what ever seein how theres a bunch of pictures.

dont want to scare away the newbies from important information


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## delta (Jul 23, 2004)

thats awsome freez really good for the newbies







i feel another run for motm comin get to printin that money earlier hehe
good job


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

delta said:


> thats awsome freez really good for the newbies
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Daywalker (Aug 15, 2004)

excellent post


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## aqualife (Sep 4, 2003)

Nice info, Mr. Freez.


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## Genin (Feb 4, 2003)

nice job. i like it and i am sure you will make it even better considering it is still under construction.


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## Red Eyes (Nov 25, 2003)

Awesome job mr. freez







1st it was the info on ick and now this


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

Very Through


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## MR HARLEY (Aug 12, 2003)

Daywalker said:


> excellent post


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## pinchy (Jun 3, 2004)

this will help answear some questions for the new guys.


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## hyphen (Apr 4, 2004)

might wanna change the "retarded" quote. it's not very...politically correct.


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

hyphen said:


> might wanna change the "retarded" quote. it's not very...politically correct.










but it is very funny


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

go ahead and artcile this boss, i cant think of anything else i wanna add


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## shutter13 (Jun 23, 2004)

good article


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

shutter13 said:


> good article










you get a dollar







your the first ive seen use
















here ill make it a 200 dollar


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## 1piranhaman (Apr 21, 2004)

serrasalmus, pristobrycon, and pygopristis are not piranhas either though. they are pirambebas. though almost always classified as piranhas.
there are only three (four including ternetzi, but not considered valid as of yet) valid species of piranha and they all lie in the pygocentrus family under characins.

so if you dont want to consider the catoprion to be under the classification of piranha, then you therefore cannot consider the three other pirambebas to be piranhas either since all five groups are almost always classified together under the group of characins know as piranhas anyways.


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## shutter13 (Jun 23, 2004)

mr.freez said:


> shutter13 said:
> 
> 
> > good article
> ...


 noice!


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## armac (Nov 28, 2002)

might change the title to say "impostor" instead of imposture :laugh:


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

armac said:


> might change the title to say "impostor" instead of imposture :laugh:


 i spelled it right 











> serrasalmus, pristobrycon, and pygopristis are not piranhas either though. they are pirambebas. though almost always classified as piranhas.
> there are only three (four including ternetzi, but not considered valid as of yet) valid species of piranha and they all lie in the pygocentrus family under characins.
> 
> so if you dont want to consider the catoprion to be under the classification of piranha, then you therefore cannot consider the three other pirambebas to be piranhas either since all five groups are almost always classified together under the group of characins know as piranhas anyways.










got a bit sciencey on me there buddy dont confuse the newbies


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## 1piranhaman (Apr 21, 2004)

i got ya, just had to put my two sense in.


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