# Whats the meanest piranha?



## oldmanweezer (Apr 1, 2003)

I want to get a group of the meanest, fiercest piranhas that are available. What would you guys reccomend?


----------



## Piranha King (Nov 28, 2002)

i have heard geryis are the sh*t. get some from ron at fishpost.com
wes


----------



## InSinUAsian (Jan 3, 2003)

There are only so many P's that have been able to be kept in a group.

Natts (yellow and red)
Caribe
Piraya
Spilos ( gold and cf)
Geryi

A few other species have been put together, such as rhoms, however most of the time it is unsuccessful.

~Dj


----------



## Shred Revolution (May 16, 2003)

a shoal of rhoms ..............


----------



## thoroughbred (Mar 14, 2003)

the ones thats after u and ur bleeding lol


----------



## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

From my experience the top three meanest overall best shoal has to be:

1st choice: Geryi
2nd choice: Terns
3rd choice: Cariba (Never had a shoal but had experience with them)


----------



## Croz (Jan 29, 2003)

never had anything accept reds. so i will have toi say rhom and Geri because of what i have seen and heard.


----------



## Poseidon X (Jan 31, 2003)

All of the Serrsalmus shoals are much more violent and angry then pygocentrus shoals where most of the fish are team players. Its comparing a pro football team to a bunch of convicts playing prison football.... They just dont value life in the same way


----------



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

i still thinkthe meanist p's is one that hasent eatin in a couple of days







doesent matter what species


----------



## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

BDKing57 said:


> All of the Serrsalmus shoals are much more violent and angry then pygocentrus shoals where most of the fish are team players. Its comparing a pro football team to a bunch of convicts playing prison football.... They just dont value life in the same way


 I would have to disagree there. Having experience with many Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus speices, Serrasalmus are just a tad more agressive i would say just because they like to be by themselves. Pygocentrus are not really team players at all if you observe. They are just opertunist(greddy ones too may i add). In a way they are smarter because once they see a fellow piranha lach on to a prey they will jump in for an easy kill unlike Serrsalmus. Although with my Geryi shoal i do see some features they present like Pygocentrus. I seen a Geryi kill a feeder then i see another one come up and take it out of their mouth much like what Pygocentrus do. So their isnt any real mean shoal sort of say. But according to my experiences those are how i rate them.

I would also like to note that, its to my blieveing that a Pygocentrus can take on any other Serrasalmus beside the Rhom,Elong,and maybe a Brandtii because i never had one. Its pretty much fair game in my book. Also with an example, i threw in a RD with my shoal of Geryi and the Geryi had the upper hand in the begging because the RD had to geg use to the tank. The next day the RD ran the tank. So i took out the RD and shoved it with a single Tern and what happen was that they started fighting from the first minute they were both in the tank. Even with a divider the Tern and RD still go at it and the Tern is 2" smaller. That comes to conclude, there is no real answer which speices is more agressive. But it is to safe to say that Serrasalmus are more territorial which may give the notion they are more agressive just because they want more space. Lastly, on agression, Pygocentrus shoal tend to hit bigger live food better/faster than Serrasalmus. Show who got more balls


----------



## SonicDark (Apr 30, 2003)

I'm still waiting for something to put in the water to make them meaner

Like blood on a hurt animal with sharks

Something to make them go nuts


----------



## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

SonicDark said:


> I'm still waiting for something to put in the water to make them meaner
> 
> Like blood on a hurt animal with sharks
> 
> Something to make them go nuts


 Wait until they get larger and you will get a frenzi no matter what you toss in for food.


----------



## GREEKMAN420 (Jun 2, 2003)

thoroughbred said:


> the ones thats after u and ur bleeding lol










Very well said.

I'd have to say Geryi...


----------



## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

o snap its eric said:


> BDKing57 said:
> 
> 
> > All of the Serrsalmus shoals are much more violent and angry then pygocentrus shoals where most of the fish are team players. Its comparing a pro football team to a bunch of convicts playing prison football.... They just dont value life in the same way
> ...


 I agree, good post. I have had a couple of serra species also(gold and rhom). And I havent seen one that hit their food as hard as my pygo's. There are differences in both. But to the point to say that they are tougher no. If that was the case they would be no pygo's only serra's or vise versa.


----------



## Mr. Hannibal (Feb 21, 2003)

Caribas or Geryi!


----------



## Gibbus (May 23, 2003)

The most aggressive piranha would be the rhom. It doesnt like another fish in the same tank has it. The other species i would say would be the brandti. A piranha that isnt shy at a small size. It is a rare fish coming from the same river has the pyocentrus piraya.


----------



## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

Um, i dont know if you owned a rhom before but their agressiveness is very limited. Again as my post above explains that there isnt a real answer to this. Did you know out of all the piranhas out there only 3 speices are known dangerous to man. Guess what they are? Rhom? Nopes. Brandti? Nopes. Natts? Yes. Cariba? Yes. Piraya? Yes. Now with that said, how can a Rhom or a Brandti be more agressive than pygos when pygos are known to be dangerous to man? But! then again, a Rhom may take down a pygo in a fight. But Rhoms again arent dangerous to man. So think about it, how can you say Rhoms and Brandtii are most agressive when they arent classified as a human threat while pygos are. Then think about this, how come rhoms can probally take down pygos but not labeled dangerous to man. Boggles the mind man. THERE IS NO DEFINATE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION.


----------



## rosecityrhom (Feb 3, 2003)

I've never experienced piraya first hand but hearing stories of it being the most feared piranha by the locals of Brazil that has to say a lot. In the wild they can reach up to 20" TL or more and from what I've heard in the aquarium they are pretty brutal as well...this is all second hand knowledge so I cannot say from experience but rather what I hear. After I get some caribe I'm gonna buy a 240 gallon acrylic and buy myself a shoal of piraya to see first hand.


----------



## hastatus (Jan 16, 2003)

> rosecityrhom Posted on Jun 3 2003, 05:24 AM ......I've never experienced piraya first hand but hearing stories of it being the most feared piranha by the locals of Brazil that has to say a lot.


Actually not, they are feared because of their size not because they have eaten anyone. This is based on local lore and overexaggeration by people. What would be more frightening, a school of 10 inch P. nattereri? or a school of 20 inch P. piraya?


----------



## Attack! (Apr 7, 2003)

just to address the "dangerous to man" quote...
the only reason caribe,reds and piraya, (although they are very dangerous indeed) are ther only ones listed as a danger to man, is because they are the ones most often seen in shoals in the wild. the rhoms grow to huge sizes and can take your foot off if they decide to...but a shoal of hungry caribe-together they can dismantle you in minutes the rhom exists as a solitary menace..and doesnt blindly attack anything that moves in the water. a shoal will do just that.
in ccaptivity,however, the playing field is more level. you cant have gigantic shoals of caribe,etc. in a normal tank.
even a 125g tank is miniscule when compared to real habitats. In this finite,controlled environment, the rhom is more accustomed to being solitary and tends not to tolerate others. of course, a shoal of caribe, say 5 or 6 of them, can take out a rhom if it so desires.!


----------



## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

So therefore thers is no right answer to this. Rhoms are just more territorial due how they like to live in the wild. That doesnt make them the meanest of all piranhas. When i the word mean comes up, i think of cichlids for some odd reason. They are not skittish and are very smart. They arent afriad to fight and defend territory. How man cichlids have you seen that would shy away from you and how many P's have you seen that would shy away from you. Cichlids by far are one of the least skittish predatory fish around. So when you also define mean you have to be more spefic here. Do you mean as territorial wise or mean as in feed and killing wise.


----------



## Gibbus (May 23, 2003)

Cichlids arent the most aggressive predory fish. Rhoms are highly territoral they will attack anything. They will many attack in the nite and from behind.


----------



## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

Cichlids attack at anyt time of the day and in front of you. You must havent seen a breeding pair of Guaptoe cichlid in breeding/or not. My little 8" RD atacks my arm when its in the tank cleaning. Just because they dont have the teeth doesnt mean they arent agressive. If cichlids had piranha teeht they would be the ultimate predator.


----------



## Gibbus (May 23, 2003)

No i havent because, personally i dont like cichlids. How about some of the freshwater puffer species. Actually cichlids wouldnt be the top predator. Look at the african tigerfish.


----------



## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

If you havent noticed, from my experince, they are shy too. There is no TOP fw pred. there is always something better. But imagine cichlids with teeth. They will be feared! Beside an ATF, not a real big fan of them. They just have a killer teeth.


----------



## Mizery (Apr 5, 2003)

out of the piranhas i have personally owned, my gold spilo is the meanest one i've had. attacks whatever i throw in there as soon as it hits the water. i had a rhom that was a p*ssy, bad luck i guess. i also had red bellys which were very skittish. i'd like to try a shoal of caribe someday when i get more money and a bigger tank.


----------



## DiXoN (Jan 31, 2003)

this is one of those discusions that can never be answered i have a really aggressive red much more aggressive than my piraya as staring fights go but when the piraya kicks off hes away it just depends on the fish.
you can have p*ssy rhoms or brandtii ,spilos or whatever and most people just diss reds why.
the cichlid debate as out and out aggression goes i would aggree with you but they havent the tools for destruction p's do the AFT have and i have seen them in an lfs it wasnt skittish just did not move but nice teeth but not really an aquarium fish imo due to the size they can reach lenght and girth .
anyway i like p's for what they are not what they can do may it have started out that way but not anymore
dixon


----------



## dead golfish (Apr 24, 2003)

i hav e no idea everyone else sounds good but however u could have a really really really agressive red that rips everything to shred or a really skittish rhom so it sorda depends on the personality of the fish


----------

