# Is It Even A Piranha



## Brickish

took my ruby spilo in to big als to get credit towards what they called a 'white piranha'.

from what I read on that, it was a rhom but just a lighter shade.

when I looked at it in the store, it was facing the back wall so I couldn't get a great look at the overall shape.

but now when I look at the pictures I just took of it, I am wondering if it is even a piranha.

looks a lot like pictures of small silver dollars, or maybe even a pacu.

what do you guys think?


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## Ægir

Almost impossible to tell at that size... I would guess its not a Pacu, but you will have to wait and see

Pacus have a mailbox shaped mouth, flatter on the bottom curved on the top.


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## Brickish

well just looking through google images for 'silver dollar fish' returned a lot of results that look like mine.

none of them quite exact, but very close.

its basically the size of the eyes, never seen any piranhas with eyes that big.



Ægir said:


> Almost impossible to tell at that size... I would guess its not a Pacu, but you will have to wait and see
> 
> Pacus have a mailbox shaped mouth, flatter on the bottom curved on the top.


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## Ægir

Looking at pictures of "Metynnis Argenteus" I see some that are also similar


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## Brickish

I dunno, I'm on the fence.

It does look very similar, but on the other hand, mine has some slight differences:

- top lip doesn't come as far out as bottom, like silver dollar

- from nose to top-back, and top-back to tail is much more jaggedy / curvey, whereas silver dollars have more straighter lines

- eye seems slighter higher in relation to mouth than silver dollar



Ægir said:


> Looking at pictures of "Metynnis Argenteus" I see some that are also similar


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## Ægir

give it some time to mature and you will know for sure...


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## Brickish

thing is, if it's not a piranha, I want to take it back and get an actual piranha.

a silver dollar is about $5, and this thing was $60.



Ægir said:


> give it some time to mature and you will know for sure...


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## scent troll

looks to be a metynnis maculatus

I would say almost certainly this is not a piranha. im gathering my best guess on this one. I could be humbled and be wrong but im banking on m. maculatus


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## Brickish

I tend to agree with your assessment, but here are a few more things I haven't mentioned, which still have me puzzled:

- when looking at his mouth straight on, I can see the top of his teeth, and they look very much like looking the teeth you would see in a piranha of this size (very pointed, space between them). Not sure what silver dollar teeth look like.

- at home, there were a couple guppies in the tank with him, the morning after I bought him, one of the guppies was dead and his lower half had been munched

- when I got him home from the store, the bag he was in had a hole in it and some of the water had leaked into the surrounding bag. I know biting the bag is a thing piranhas do (my red spilo did it in about 3 seconds at the store when the guy prepared to transfer him to a tank). Not sure if this is something silver dollars might do as well, or if by off chance the bag was punctured some other way

- at the store before I bought him, he was in a small tank with a slightly smaller red-belly. My fish was totally the dominant one in the tank. I was going to say something to the people working there to separate them because it looked like my guy was gonna kill the other the way he was going after him. But I forgot. Came back a couple days later and they had them separated.

Anyway, I'll prob take him back and try to reverse the deal...



central said:


> looks to be a metynnis maculatus
> 
> I would say almost certainly this is not a piranha. im gathering my best guess on this one. I could be humbled and be wrong but im banking on m. maculatus


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## THE BLACK PIRANHA

That is a Piranha and I had 1 like that at 1 time but been out of the P hobby and can't remember the name. But it is for sure a Piranha. If I can remember the name I will get on and post it.


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## Brickish

well I took it back and got my red spilo back.

would love to know the name of the one you had, if you could think of it.



THE BLACK PIRANHA said:


> That is a Piranha and I had 1 like that at 1 time but been out of the P hobby and can't remember the name. But it is for sure a Piranha. If I can remember the name I will get on and post it.


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## SKurj

This looks like a Serrasalmus 'muda' (just from image browsing..)


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## Colty

It resembles like serrasalmus muda.....Its a piranha for sure ....


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## Brickish

I think you guys nailed it...Serrasalmus serrulatus...aka muda like you said.

Thanks a lot, that was bothering me not knowing what it was.



Colty said:


> It resembles like serrasalmus muda.....Its a piranha for sure ....


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## Colty




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## scent troll

this is nothing new to me. its so often difficult to identify whats what with piranha species. 
this ones a little tricky. definitely dont think i nailed it but i took my best guess.

im such an advocate of breeders/sellers disclosing the origin of their fish. with piranha where so many are wild caught, if its not catalogued you might never know.

per usual though it adds to the mystery of this species. so many variations from a relatively small area (globally thinking)

good responses here


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## Sanchezi

This is a Serrasalmus serralatus, as it is from big als and all their shipments come from Peru...
The only thing is to me this species should be pulled out of Serrasalmus and put into Pristobrycon based on its discoid shape and weaker jaws...
but at the end of the day it is a piranha or natives would call it a pirambeba.


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## Dr Exum

Nice


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## ANDONI

SKurj said:


> This looks like a Serrasalmus 'muda' (just from image browsing..)


Agree


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