# Breeders Bowl



## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Mods might not like this but; making this thread for any & all comments,debates,ect about breeding piranha. This is for anyone that spawned piranha. I know some can tell the difference in sexes & I'm curious if primetime or any other Mac breeders noticed the difference with macs? Staring at mine today using the rbp method(belly & profile view)I noticed there's quite a difference just like rbp. Males have a flat belly & females is round(dips down farther).


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

BRUNER247 said:


> Mods might not like this but...


No problem whatsoever... Just as long as debates stay civil


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

BRUNER247 said:


> Mods might not like this but; making this thread for any & all comments,debates,ect about breeding piranha. This is for anyone that spawned piranha. I know some can tell the difference in sexes & I'm curious if primetime or any other Mac breeders noticed the difference with macs? Staring at mine today using the rbp method(belly & profile view)I noticed there's quite a difference just like rbp. Males have a flat belly & females is round(dips down farther).


i've noticed differences in rbp and macs, but the only way to 100% be sure would be to open them up and compare...though you could say AFTER they spawn, who is who. even my new geryi group has differences but i can't say 100%.

i know exactly what you are talking about though. one of my 3 cariba has a really flat belly and seems more elongated...but i still don't think you can say what sex...i *think this is what frank would say if he was still around regularly.

one area i think should be looked at more by potential breeders of just about any species is TANK SIZE. i know all piranhas feel more comfortable the larger the tank, and i think comfort is about the best starting point of any breeding project (assuming water quality is not terrible). i probably won't try and spawn my geryi until i can hopefully get them into a 180g, vs. 125g they are in now.

when i spawned macs they went at it quickly after i heavily planted the tank and up'd the temp...however, i believe "febsalien" spawned his in a bare 75g, so it's like WTF? the most unfortunate part of all this is we have waay too few people attempting breeding to find out the most important variables.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

IMO them being comfortable is the most important part.I agree its not 100% but I don't need it to be. I won't mind being wrong with the exception to the rule, as I'm not matching them up in pairs. Staring at them this afternoon I noticed that my bigger ones are also the round bellied ones. And the smaller ones have a flat belly which is even more noticeable than on rbp.which the size difference goes along with rbp growth also.as a rule females grow little faster. I have my macs in two groups of 5, so I can tell each individual fish apart(10 in one tank it too busy to focus on differences). So time will tell if my predictions on sex are right. My two biggest(IMO females) are very dark today(biggest in each tank).I noticed that what I believe are males are also the most colorful gold with a lot of orange in gill plate & belly below it.very much rrs looking.


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

yes, i agree that females grow a little faster, esp. with macs, as the slightly smaller male will create the nest while female often at top of tank, hovering. one thing that was nice, my experience wasn't like the one discussed on opefe, in which the pair of macs tore each other up really badly. in that case, if you loook at the fish you might wonder how it even survived the mating process. for me, the damage was actually pretty minimal. that's a whole differene case with the fry though...i found them to be significantly more cannibalistic than rbp when they reached about 1/2"-3/4".

you shouldn't have issues with at least getting 1 pair with all those fish. you might want to message "robertm1" on the other site because after i sold my 3 pairs to him, it took a while before he got them to spawn again. you might want to just ask him about his experience...again, that might have been just waiting for them to settle, but it took a while. it's possible it, again, took quite a while for them to settle IN THAT SITUATION. now, i mentioned "febsalien"...if you look him up i believe he had a bare tank for his macs...but maybe they were settled but just took longer than my group when they were with me or robert.

you may have issues getting hold of him but i will look through my old pm's with him ("robertm1")...

i'd bet almost any species could breed in some of the huge tanks we see out there...unfortunately, other than rbp, macs, and now cariba, i havn't really even heard of SERIOUS breeding attempts for all the other species. with so few of us attempting serious breeding with other than rbp, things are going to progress slowly







SO MANY VARIABLES SO LITTLE TIME LOL.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Yeah I've read about Robert having trouble at first. I know they get used to their setup & even a routine & the keeper they see everyday, which like you said it just took em a while to feel comfortable again. I spend all day, everyday with my fish & imo it shows with the way they all act. I'm pretty bummed right now, thought I was gonna score a margin & tern group but that don't look so good now. I have my 8x4 tank waiting for something special & have the WOW museum here said I can stock their flooded rainforest exhibit with some piranha so hopefully something interesting comes along. I'm working on a couple outdoor ponds for some summertime attempts in a more natural setting. Sacrifice needs to move closer so I can turn his basement into some ponds. Lol


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## Uncle Jesse (Feb 18, 2007)

Actually my macs spawned in a 125 with large gravel, 2 smallish chunks of drift wood and some fake plants. I have two AC 110s and a rena xp4 on it. I transfered the fry to a bare 75 gal tho. I noticed mine didn't rip each other up too badly ether. I don't know if it had anything to do with it, but it prolly did, but about a week before they spawned for the fist time I was doing a water change when a buddy stopped by to go for a bike ride. I was syphoning the water and completely forgot about it. When I returned home 5-6 hours later I found all 5 of my macs in about 6 inches of water. I felt like sh*t and thought for sure they were gonna die. I quickly filled the tank back up but I only had enough chemicals for about 20 gal. After they spawned I never used any more chems. just strait tap. Hell I never even checked the temp of the tap water. I just felt it and when it felt a little cooler then the tank I went with it. Also I believe when the tank water went so low it messed up my heater. I didn't notice the temp until they were breeding, it stays around 82-84 but is set for 72. I wasn't planning on trying to get them to bred until I moved into my new house. I moved about a week after the first spawning and they spawned again the 3rd day at the new location. They would spawn and I would leave them alone for 3 or 4 days. Then I would remove the eggs which would usually take about 10% of the water from the tank. Refill it and in a week they were back at it.

Also I just picked up a small group of Terns.(5 maybe 6) I am in it for the long haul and hopefully try some things with them for breeding when they are a couple years old.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Yeah siphoning eggs or water for baby tanks & topping of parents take is a vicious cycle making them spawn again & again. Goodluck unclejesse with those terns. I was wanting some but looks like I missed out on them.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

I'll try to get a good pic of the male too for picutre comparison. The female is larger then the male though she is the more dominant one so this seems reasonable.

My Female:


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## Uncle Jesse (Feb 18, 2007)

BRUNER247 said:


> Yeah siphoning eggs or water for baby tanks & topping of parents take is a vicious cycle making them spawn again & again. Goodluck unclejesse with those terns. I was wanting some but looks like I missed out on them.


Yeah it looks like the Tern breeding may be scraped. I originally bought six babies. But now that they are getting some growth it looks like I have 3 Terns, 2 Mac/Spilo and 1 Marg? So unless I can get 2 more Terns I don't have faith in a breeding project.


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