# Please Help Identify My Golden.



## Snakeyes (Apr 21, 2005)

I received some great advice in the general discussion area on the care of my piranha. I inherited this fish(over seven years ago) in a very small size from my son who introduced it into his tank which had six other red bellies of approximately the same size. It battled and ate its way to being the sole survivor in the tank. It would be great if you could help identify my piranha. It is about 7 1/2 inches long, very aggressive and active. it will aggressively follow the finger around its tank. About a year ago, one of my sons friends was using the tip of his finger at the water level and lost a decent chunk of the tip to this fish. It's golden belly is not as evident in the pictures and the upper part of the fish looks a little darker in real life but I hope they help in identifying it. Also, the age of the tailfin is dark black and not clear, if that helps. Thanks again.


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## Guest (Mar 18, 2012)

Serrasalmus maculatus http://www.piranha-fury.com/information/profile.php?cat=p&id=10


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## Nzac (Oct 13, 2010)

serrasalmus maculatus.


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## memento (Jun 3, 2009)

S.maculatus.


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## Snakeyes (Apr 21, 2005)

Thank you all. After over seven years I finally know the genus of my piranha. The description in the URL posted by *Ksls *describes my fish to a T including its propensity to bite extremities.Is there anything that I could keep in my tank, that would be ignored by this fish - snails, shellfish, anything?


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## Nzac (Oct 13, 2010)

my mac ignores snails, but everything that swims is food. That is the tank I breed my snails in for my fahaka puffer.


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## Snakeyes (Apr 21, 2005)

Snails it is.


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## Ja'eh (Jan 8, 2007)

That is a beautiful mac you have there!







Makes me wanna set up another tank and pick one up.


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## Snakeyes (Apr 21, 2005)

Thank you *Ja'eh*. I had joined and last visited this forum in 2005 when I inherited the sole survivor (fishy Hunger Games)from my sons tank (several red bellies and this "Mac", now that I know what it is). He is an active and aggressive bugger. Yesterday, following *Nzac's *suggestion I put a few snails into the tank and this morning he had cracked open one shell and had escargot sushi. It was the smallest one so I hope the balance survive. 
This is an extraordinary forum with very knowledgeable and helpful members. Thanks to it I am looking at my Mac from a brand-new perspective.


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## Nzac (Oct 13, 2010)

unfortunately anything in a serra tank has potential to become food, every fish is different, like I said my mac does not eat snails, but does eat anything else in there. Maybe I'm lucky and he just hasn't realised they taste good too. My rhom on the other hand will eat/kill anything even the big apple snails.


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## Snakeyes (Apr 21, 2005)

*Nzac*, I hope I did not give you the wrong impression regarding the snail idea. The rest of them are doing great for the moment and your suggestion was definitely worth a shot and might yet pay off. In fact I never realized how strong their bite is. I used to have a decent sized blue lobster that survived till it needed to molt and then it was instantly history. Cheers.


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## sledge760 (Nov 21, 2005)

Nice Mac.


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