# 20 macs!!



## Slay (May 2, 2003)

i got 20 macs from tfdfish.com. these are the brazilian ones that primetime3wise bred. all of them came in alive. 2 arrived with a messed up eye. they don't fight yet. they don't like when the tank lights are on, but when they are off, they swim all over. i just got them to start eating some bloodworms.


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

wow, that is awesome







it's cool to see them compared to when i had them.

you are now my p hero. makes me miss the parents, somewhat, but i have a nice huge rhom instead. if i ever put up another large tank this might be the route i go.

i think you will be easily able to raise 12-18 of them to adulthood. imo, overcrowding these guys is a good thing and will cut down on aggression and territoriality, once they reach 3"-4". until then, keep trying to feed every few hours, a little at a time and see if they take it, if not just try again later. they just need to settle a bit now. my 13-14" rhom just started moving around me yesterday, after almost 2 weeks, so, as you know, p's need more time to acclimate then your average fish. he totally still freaks out when the lights in the tank are on.

i can't wait to see them a few weeks and months down the road. you should be fine, in the long run, well at least until they get large 8"+, but that takes years.

as far as decor, i hear stories from both sides. it may help the weaker ones from cannibalism when younger since they have a place to hide. however, at the same time, i believe they are ambush predators and opportunistic, so it actually might increase aggression, hard to say for sure, but i would at least provide, imo, several hiding spots.

keep the temp down till they get larger!! i really stress this point. 72 or so should be good until they get past the cannibalism stage, at like 3"-4". i can see they are already feeding on each others fins, so for the first few weeks you have to be really diligent with their care. i know some people here would argue with this, but you might wanna even toss in some rosies (minnows)/feeders so they chow down on them instead of each other. i only recommend this in the beginning until they are more settled and larger.

once they get acclimated, feed every few hours, you wanna keep those bellies full..

i really stress filtration when they get larger. p's are pigs so you are gonna have to really over-filtrate when they are larger.

i hope the fact they are tank raised, helps.

i also hope your cohab here gets others thinking more about keeping these guys together.

g/l with this and keep the updates going' looks great









you should also get some great coloring on them. it was awesome i bred them, but to a degree i regret using black gravel...it made them too dark and almost look like a dark rhom. once the gold comes in, you should have some great looking p's, one of the best.


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## ballistic (Dec 26, 2007)

nice set up...finally setted up my 125gal but all i have in it is one 18" arowana


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## Uncle Jesse (Feb 18, 2007)

You will enjoy these guys. I wish I knew exactly where mine came from. I have had many piranha over the years and MACS have always proved to be the most interesting. I originally picked up mine with breeding in mind then I fell in love with them. Now I just wish there were a way to stop/slow them down a little. I have two fry tanks full and they have laid eggs again. Two batches less then a foot apart, so theres a lot of fighting going on rite now. Maybe I'll put the girls on one side and the boys on the other for a while? Listen to what primetime has said. Particularly the part on them being pretty cannibalistic when they are young. I just lost a few to that and have 2 more with only one eye and they are only 1 inch.

Something tells me Jmax will have a thread similar to this very soon.









You picked a great piranha. I wish you the best of luck.


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## khmerboiRED (Jul 15, 2008)

Nice pick up man. Hope everything works out for you.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

Sweet pick up, good luck with them


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

febsalien said:


> You will enjoy these guys. I wish I knew exactly where mine came from. I have had many piranha over the years and MACS have always proved to be the most interesting. I originally picked up mine with breeding in mind then I fell in love with them. Now I just wish there were a way to stop/slow them down a little. I have two fry tanks full and they have laid eggs again. Two batches less then a foot apart, so theres a lot of fighting going on rite now. Maybe I'll put the girls on one side and the boys on the other for a while? Listen to what primetime has said. Particularly the part on them being pretty cannibalistic when they are young. I just lost a few to that and have 2 more with only one eye and they are only 1 inch.
> 
> Something tells me Jmax will have a thread similar to this very soon.
> 
> ...


you could TRY and take out all the decor and turn the temp way down. it might help, one of my pairs stopped after i did that...though it didn't stop the top male at all, lol.

that sucks you lost some to cannibalism, recently. i didn't lose any of my adults to that. one had a bad eye that was the result of infection. two of them did kind of have close calls. they were bitten the exact way, right in front of the dorsal fin. it was the only time in 10 months i had close calls, bites to the body. i can see though where it can get worse when they start breeding. when i initially turned the damn temp up to 85 +/-, they were at each other all the time, and bred with a fury. another factor may be when they get big, i'm talking over 8"+, then it could get ugly because of the sizes of the bites. i sold mine at 6" so i am not sure about that, but that is still 2 years, minimum, down the road for "slay".

also, though i sound like a repeating record, i think brazilian ones are less aggressive than ones from argentina. i also hope the fact they are tank raised, from fry, helps. seems that from what i read about wild caught reds, here, they are much more aggressive, so i would assume the same to be true for golds.


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## Uncle Jesse (Feb 18, 2007)

Well I haven't lost any adults yet just little guys. I think I'm going to keep one pair and try my hand at breeding carbies?

Anyways to the OP how are these guys doing? At least you have a good idea of what your in for in a few years. LOL


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## Slay (May 2, 2003)

i got them to eat little pieces of raw shrimp today. i just had to tear it up real small. one of the ones with one eye got worked last night and was not looking so well this morning, so i separated it. they seem to be getting more aggressive towards each other now, but they haven't been eating much up to this point, so hopefully they will settle down now.


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## philbert (Mar 8, 2007)

looks good. btw i saw some more of the same stock at an lfs and they looked good their too. its much better seeing your set up tho.


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

febsalien said:


> Well I haven't lost any adults yet just little guys. I think I'm going to keep one pair and try my hand at breeding carbies?
> 
> Anyways to the OP how are these guys doing? At least you have a good idea of what your in for in a few years. LOL


i may try caribes down the road. heh, now that a few people online have bred macs, it's on to the next step...

it would be quite impressive to anyone that does. i hope someone has the diligence to make it happen.


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## Piranha Madness (Feb 23, 2008)

primetime3wise said:


> Well I haven't lost any adults yet just little guys. I think I'm going to keep one pair and try my hand at breeding carbies?
> 
> Anyways to the OP how are these guys doing? At least you have a good idea of what your in for in a few years. LOL


i may try caribes down the road. heh, now that a few people online have bred macs, it's on to the next step...

it would be quite impressive to anyone that does. i hope someone has the diligence to make it happen.
[/quote]

Add me to the Caribe List







........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## lover-8823 (Feb 14, 2007)

congratulation~nice little guys


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## pbucch (Nov 18, 2008)

Hey Slay, are you interested in selling one of them? I called Joe at TFD yesterday and he said they were sold out =(


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## Slay (May 2, 2003)

yeah, i'll probably sell a few, but only locally. are you in MN?

the one that i had to separate died that night. otherwise, everything has been good. their fins are growing back nicely now, and they are eating shrimp well.

i have tried to breed cariba in the past with no luck. it is very hard. i had a 220gal tank, and i tried to get them to breed for years, but no luck. good luck with that though, i think that would be awesome.


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## pbucch (Nov 18, 2008)

damnit, I am in CT, oh well, good luck.


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## badforthesport (Jan 8, 2004)

Very Nice!

I wonder if anyone would like to get a Group Buy for Socal with tfdfish...


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## lover-8823 (Feb 14, 2007)

waiting for your more pictures, thanks!!!


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## Slay (May 2, 2003)

took some new pics today of the little guys. they are growing well. there is one that looks like it hasn't grown any, but the rest are looking good. around 10 of them always chill in the right 1/3 of the tank in a group and the other 9 will be spread out in the rest of the tank. they are still a little shy when the lights are on, but they swim all over when they are off.

there is also a video here:






if you want, you can see my other videos of my old rhom and mbu puffer on youtube too.


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

looks like they are doing really well. it's great you havn't lost any more to cannibalism, they must have picked off the weaker ones when i had them (  for me). get them to 3"-4" and you shouldn't have to worry much, if at all, about it. they should grow quickly to that size with all that room and enough food. g/l, they look great.


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## Uncle Jesse (Feb 18, 2007)

primetime3wise said:


> looks like they are doing really well. it's great you havn't lost any more to cannibalism, they must have picked off the weaker ones when i had them (  for me). get them to 3"-4" and you shouldn't have to worry much, if at all, about it. they should grow quickly to that size with all that room and enough food. g/l, they look great.


So these are some of your babies? What did you end up doing with all them?


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

febsalien said:


> looks like they are doing really well. it's great you havn't lost any more to cannibalism, they must have picked off the weaker ones when i had them (  for me). get them to 3"-4" and you shouldn't have to worry much, if at all, about it. they should grow quickly to that size with all that room and enough food. g/l, they look great.


So these are some of your babies? What did you end up doing with all them?
[/quote]

most went to TFD, and the rest went to a lfs, where they have been sitting for a few weeks now. i'll have to check on them, but last i knew they were still there, at least that is what "philbert" seemed to indicate in one of his posts.

i miss the parents, they were cool to keep. very active when there was no decor in the tank, and not nearly as skittish as pygos of similair size (6").


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## Slay (May 2, 2003)

thanks for the replies. yeah, i just lost that one because it got chomped on (it had one eye to start, so a weak link). i separated it, but it was too late. they do chase each other around (especially when they know it's about to be feeding time), but not too many injuries. it's almost like how my exodons acted. the smallest one likes to hang out in the large group, and because of that it has no fins. the one that took over the cave eats like mad, and maybe has doubled its size.


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

Nice!
Look forward to updates.


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## Twin Cities (Jan 31, 2003)

Looks Good Ryan. i wanna come check em out sooner or later.


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## Slay (May 2, 2003)

no problem steve. call me whenever. i am unemployed at the moment, so i got lots of time.


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## Slay (May 2, 2003)

more pics. they are doing okay these days. they don;t seem to eat as much as they has for a while. one lost an eye and 2 others lost their tail and had to be removed, but other than that lookin good... a few are growing a lot more than the rest.
there is one that is way lighter than all the others. it's kinda crazy. its lighter all the time, it almost has no pigment or spots. the first 2 pics show this one. pics aren't great, but they just don't seem to photograph well.


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## lover-8823 (Feb 14, 2007)

nice tank nice fish


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

looking good! many of them look like they are gold serras now.

i figure if you get 12-15 of them to grow out to 3"-4", you will have a sweet cohab going.

i had 9, then 7, of the parents together in this size tank. once they get larger i think you should remove most decor, except for a few small hiding spots, and they will be really active.


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## Slay (May 2, 2003)

i decided to remove the decor because there had been too many tails getting chomped. it has been about 5 days, and so far everything is good. they are not fighting and they are eating a lot better than they had been the last few weeks. they are not too active when the lights are on, but i like the setup better.
those last pictures were terrible, i'll try to take some better ones.


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## duende_df (Aug 15, 2004)

they look really nice, ....i remember when i used to have my 10 red bellies







take good care of them.


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

Slay said:


> i decided to remove the decor because there had been too many tails getting chomped. it has been about 5 days, and so far everything is good. they are not fighting and they are eating a lot better than they had been the last few weeks. they are not too active when the lights are on, but i like the setup better.
> those last pictures were terrible, i'll try to take some better ones.


that's cool. they will be more active, eventually, in your sized tank. you should have a nice shoal going as they get larger and used to the tank. there is pros and cons with trying different things and i hope this setup works for you.


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