# 12 Serrasalmus Maculatus



## Sylvius

Hello,

I have my family Macs, i'm very happy...

Their tank (3m/120inches length, 1200L/320Gal with an external decanted tank 250L/66Gal for the filtration) is not ready yet.
I have a water leak in one of the two outs of the tank.
So, for the moment, they are in the Maurice's tank (my Brandtii's tank, 600L/160Gal, 2m/80inches length). Maurice is waiting in 350L tank.

They are very cute, very little (less than 3 inches) and very awake.
I have decreased the temperature (23.5-24°C/74-75°F), and feed them 2 at 3 times per day. I put pieces by pieces of shrimp and little fish, in order to have the minimum of waste in the tank. It's also to motivate 2-3 fishs who are very scared of the situation (they are hidden and stress, no defense, no feeding,... I'm worried for them). One of this 3 was killed the first night, due at an increase temperature (25.5°C/78°F).

So, enough speaking, let me introduce you my new family...














































And some videos






[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cEtJDkPgTM[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9KwNiLtR4Y


----------



## Davebod89

Very nice









I love the view of fish from above. not sure why







lol


----------



## weerhom

[quote name='Davebod89' date='19 June 2010 - 07:00 AM' timestamp='1276945259' post='2565309']
Very nice









I love the view of fish from above. not sure why







lol

X2!!! lol


----------



## primetime3wise

very nice, it will be really incredible when the setup is ready and they get some size on them.

you can't really say it was def. increased temp that caused the loss of one of them. they are brutal below 4"-5" to each other, lots of cannibalism. like i keep saying to people who have a cohab of macs, it gets much better as they grow and they won't shred each other's fins as much.


----------



## memen

Nice


----------



## IceCum

Hey!! you're that guy on youtube i just replied to not too long ago before this lol... kool! but yeah love them fish and sorry about your lost. I also losted 2 but that was because they both were tailess at first; got them at a cheaper price since they were damage already. They lasted good a 3 months before getting ate.

Here's a very poor quality of my piranhas. sorry ill update it soon lol. It consist of 9 S. Mac and 4 RBP.

http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q130/infantries/?action=view&current=VID_20110127_123108.mp4


----------



## Uncle Jesse

^^^ Cool, how long have they been together?


----------



## Smoke

Very cool! I love the shape on those macs.


----------



## notaverage

primetime3wise said:


> very nice, it will be really incredible when the setup is ready and they get some size on them.
> 
> you can't really say it was def. increased temp that caused the loss of one of them. they are brutal below 4"-5" to each other, lots of cannibalism. like i keep saying to people who have a cohab of macs, it gets much better as they grow and they won't shred each other's fins as much.


Prime....Werent you the one that bred the Macs?
Not sure why i'm thinking that but you had done something that was immpresive or risky...I just can't recall.

Anyway,
Macs are Awesome to see together but sucks to come back to less of them and fins and heads floating.

TOO expensive for my blood....I'm happy with my single Mac General Tso.
Still a mean bastard as a years ago.


----------



## Piranha-Freak101

Davebod89 said:


> Very nice
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I love the view of fish from above. not sure why
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> lol


i was just about to put that, its attracting for some reason


----------



## Ba20

nice vids good luck


----------



## primetime3wise

notaverage said:


> very nice, it will be really incredible when the setup is ready and they get some size on them.
> 
> you can't really say it was def. increased temp that caused the loss of one of them. they are brutal below 4"-5" to each other, lots of cannibalism. like i keep saying to people who have a cohab of macs, it gets much better as they grow and they won't shred each other's fins as much.


Prime....Werent you the one that bred the Macs?
Not sure why i'm thinking that but you had done something that was immpresive or risky...I just can't recall.

Anyway,
Macs are Awesome to see together but sucks to come back to less of them and fins and heads floating.

TOO expensive for my blood....I'm happy with my single Mac General Tso.
Still a mean bastard as a years ago.
[/quote]

yes i did breed them, around the same time febsalien bred them. they weren't too bad at 5" or so, and bred readily once they settled, and esp. after i bumped the temp.

with all these mac cohabs, i would love to see more experimentation of keeping macs together from brazil vs argentina. i've posted many, many times that ones from brazil PROBABLY cohab better than ones from argentina. too bad this info may never become well known.


----------



## BRUNER247

Mine are supposedly from Brazil. The op's fish looked rough! Beatup & half starved.


----------



## primetime3wise

i think it's why some succeed and others fail horribly :/


----------



## BRUNER247

Ash has shipment from Argentina, maybe there's a few macs mixed in?


----------



## BRUNER247

So the macs from Argentina are bigger & meaner than Brazilian macs? Would think its backwards, warmer water fish would get bigger.


----------



## primetime3wise

it's far from a scientific fact, but from my own experience and others, it seems that way.


----------



## BRUNER247

Like I said I'd think the warmer Brazil would produce bigger fish, but terns are from the colder Argentina & they get bigger than their northern cousins(rbp) & I've heard they're meaner also. Maybe the colder temps put them into like survival mode or something? Damn prime now I want some Argentina macs to see the difference for myself.lol. So prime you spawned Brazilian macs? I'm are at 5-6" & be year old in another month.


----------



## Grosse Gurke

There are two totally different variants. The Argentine looks much different then the Brazilian. Here is a 11"-12" maculatus...much larger then the reported max size according to science.


----------



## BRUNER247

That Mac has silver eyes huh? Mine look different, mine have amber eyes like rbp.


----------



## primetime3wise

BRUNER247 said:


> Like I said I'd think the warmer Brazil would produce bigger fish, but terns are from the colder Argentina & they get bigger than their northern cousins(rbp) & I've heard they're meaner also. Maybe the colder temps put them into like survival mode or something? Damn prime now I want some Argentina macs to see the difference for myself.lol. So prime you spawned Brazilian macs? I'm are at 5-6" & be year old in another month.


yeah according to george/Shark Aq. they were from brazil. mine were right at your size when they spawned...so yours should be close to being mature if not already. i just really bumped up the temp and they went at it. i had a heavily planted tank, BUT, "febsalien" another member spawned them in a bare tank.

...and GG, holy crap that thing is huge! never saw one that size.


----------



## shaneb

My sole survivor looks just like the one GG pictured only about 6 inches smaller..lol Which variant is the pictured one?


----------



## bricklr

I have the clear eyed Argentina Macs. Bigger, meaner ahh...no wonder I only have 3 left


----------



## primetime3wise

it's too bad the difference is a hardly known one...it could have saved many people time, $$$, and heart ache


----------



## Moondemon

IceCum said:


> Hey!! you're that guy on youtube i just replied to not too long ago before this lol... kool! but yeah love them fish and sorry about your lost. I also losted 2 but that was because they both were tailess at first; got them at a cheaper price since they were damage already. They lasted good a 3 months before getting ate.
> 
> Here's a very poor quality of my piranhas. sorry ill update it soon lol. It consist of 9 S. Mac and 4 RBP.
> 
> http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q130/infantries/?action=view&current=VID_20110127_123108.mp4


You should never cohab macs and reds together...


----------



## BRUNER247

Why is that? I have a rbp with both of my Mac groups.


----------



## Moondemon

Most of these cohabs don't work out in the end. I guess you've been lucky ^^


----------



## thundergolf

I have kept Macs together with Reds for a good year untill they were sold. A few fin nips here and there but nothing major.


----------



## TJcali

I got a couple more tanks (yes still addicted to P's) just emailed George to see if he can send P's to mexico hope fully one day I can couple of these guys.

Nice Mac's man







They just need to get a little fattend up


----------



## Sylvius

Hi all and thanks a lot for the comments and the good infos have read on top of these pages.
The are together since (in my home) June 2010 and they were arrived on April 2010 at my dealer in Switzerland.

Exactly, they were together... For the explain, this is a part of my topic on piranhas-fr.com.
Thanks in advance for the approx translation









_Well here I am back after a very eventful professionally, which explains my absence in recent months (even if I threw more than one eye on the forum). I traveled a lot (China, Denmark, Germany, UAE, ...) and the release of the expansion of WOW has not helped to find the time ^ ^
Well, enough of blah-blah ...

I just read these 3 pages and nostalgia back to me in the throat ... It was nice to dream, especially with these 12 wonderful Macs, their arrivals, feedings, hours watching them alone in the dark, hummmm ... Mornings in rescuing the victims' heads, aaaaaarfffff ...

Of the 12, now I just have it 4.
4 have finished snack, 4 died of a rise of nitrite seems it. I had a multitude of power outages in the street for 72 hours (1 of 6 hours and ten between 30min and 1 hour). I went on the road three days, and at my back was what I feared happened. The 4 lowest were dead, the largest were in mode "Help !!! We're going to die!!!" ... Big water changes, and thus rescue them.
These power outages and the death of 4 were halted the experiment.
On the experience itself, I modestly refer to some info:

1
As already stated repeatedly and check the maculatus fish are not gregarious and seem totally incompatible in the long term maintenance group.
I totally UNADVICED this pseudo-maintenance to all people like me who dreamed of a COHAB of Serras.
Their lifestyle is completely different than Pygos, their occupations, too. Like all Serras juveniles or small sizes, they spend their time to charge to eat the fins, scales and mucus from their neighbors, which cause stress and fistfights time ... Until one of the group found to be injured or traumatized, and therefore abandoned by seeking refuge where he can. And, it does not last long there as a signal to other members: "Number 8 is in trouble, to TABLE! ! ! ! "
And there, everybody put their heart's content, the weakest and most isolated join the fray, restoring some confidence for the days to come.

2
People always say to take the youngest possible to force the group and avoid any changes solitary specimens. I would put a caveat saying that my fish were really too young to go together.
Let me explain, you see the cannibal spirit of Pygos and is worse with wild Pygos.
So imagine the behavior of juveniles Serras.









3
The evolution of Macs.
It's amazing, I was 12 photocopying when they were 8cm. Now, the four survivors are completely different (shapes, sizes, behaviors, ...).
Is this leads to increased predation more internal than in Pygos?
Hence natural selection alone or persist and reproduce the most powerful and closest to the specimen of the species?

So many questions and so little answers ... I'm disappointed but not depressed. An upcoming project is ongoing.
For the 4 survivors, they are arranged right care cons for free...
Read you later...









_


----------



## Sylvius

Hello,

Some new pics before they leave the tank.
Each fish have found a new home on different area of France, so it's the last days.

Now, they are totally lonely fish.
I have tried last week to put the last fish together... 10 minutes of hurry, it was the Water War...

Have a nice weekend...


----------

