# Behavior in Wild



## Blacksheep (Dec 11, 2003)

O.K. Another dumb question...as I have been studying, I began to wonder...

Do piranha cross breed in the wild? Is it possible? Or do they stay to their own? Will you find shoaling of different breeds in the wild? If not...why? Temperment?

I was just curious, and could not find it in a search here or on the web.

Jeffrey


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## X-D-X (Jul 3, 2003)

i think they do they are just differant and are eaten cuaz they are wierd and seen as sick!!!


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## Lahot (May 20, 2003)

all the different types are from different areas/regions of South America, so I don't think they have much of an opportunity to meet and hook up with different types.


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## serrasalmus_collector (Mar 9, 2003)

PastorJeff said:


> O.K. Another dumb question...as I have been studying, I began to wonder...
> 
> Do piranha cross breed in the wild? Is it possible? Or do they stay to their own? Will you find shoaling of different breeds in the wild? If not...why? Temperment?
> 
> ...


 This is not a dumb question at all... I constantly wonder myself. With the 5 distict variations of the SpiloCF. I think they are locality differences. Also the Reds, pervian, araguaian, and ternetzi. Those are also theoretically capible of interbreeding.

Perhaps the genus that are capible of interbreeding never meet up with each other in the wild... I constatly keep tanks of mixed serras just to see what happens. I don't recommend keeping mixed serrasalmus species, but it appears they can build a tolerance for each other. With more collectors getting more fish out of the Amazon basin, no telling what may appear in the future...









This possiblity is exloplored by very few hobbiest. I choose to explore it, and share all me results with numberous forums in the piranha section. There was a case in the Metro-Detroit area when I was in Junior High school. I was not into piranhas then @ all. But I remember my mom and dad telling me that a Natt, was released into Lake St. Clair, and interbreed with a Bluegill or somekind of sunfish. Since so many people have been asking about that, I will research the Detroit Free press, 1979-1981 and try to find this article, and provide a linke...









This was no Sun, News, of Globe paper, it what a legitimate newspaper...


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## khuzhong (Apr 11, 2003)

sounds very interesting SC.. find the link.


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## Blacksheep (Dec 11, 2003)

serrasalmus_collector said:


> But I remember my mom and dad telling me that a Natt, was released into Lake St. Clair, and interbreed with a Bluegill or somekind of sunfish. Since so many people have been asking about that, I will research the Detroit Free press, 1979-1981 and try to find this article, and provide a linke...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 Funny that you should mention this! This is the exact reason that I am looking into the breeding habits and limits of the piranha.

Three years ago, people were getting bitten by a type of fish in a public lake at Rock Cut State Park. They ended up shocking the lack (It was not a big one at all) and they stated that someone had released piranha in the lake and it had bred with a sunfish and created this nasty hybred fish. I think that it was an urban legend...but I needed to figure out if they were capable of cross breeding first. If they are capable of cross breeding with other P's, then the next question is are they capable of cross breeding with another species of fish?

I know it sounds dumb, but this is the type of ignorance that drives me nuts. This is only beat by the ignorance of how a piranha can chew through the hull of a boat to get to the human inside, when they are hungry









Thanks for the info. If you find the link, let me know.

Jeffrey


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## serrasalmus_collector (Mar 9, 2003)

I am currently looking for the article. I may have to go to the library. I am having trouble getting archives that old.

I did try this inter-breeding experiment about 2 year ago. I caught an adult bluegill, and kept him with me breeding reds. He lasted about 8 months, and them from no where the whacked him. Nothing was left but lips eyes, and a spinal column. I haven't explored it anymore. Someone told me it was very illegal for me to keep fish from native waters in a home aquarium.

I love me fish and experimenting with them, but I'm not gonna get no fines for risk jail for them...LOL


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