Unknown date 91'
I first started out with three 7 to 8" adult Red Belly Piranhas (P.nattereri) in a 90gallon tank. These 3 Piranhas have lived together their whole lives and have never been kept with any other fish.
Unknown date 92'
I decided to try and inroduce some different species of fish with my Piranha, the first of these was a 8" Green Spot Texas Cichlid. They co-existed peacefully for months without a problem, but eventually the Piranhas killed and ate the Fish. Possible reason for failure: I neglected to feed them for a few days.
Unknown date 92'
I then decided that I would use a fish that normally co-exists with Piranha in the wild. So I chose a large 10" Black Pacu. I introduced the fish without doing anything special; re-arrange tank furnishings, etc. as some people would recommend. I just opened the bag and released the Pacu into the tank. The Piranhas immeditaly went over to "greet" the Pacu and it seemed as if they where mingling. The 3 Piranhas and Black Pacu got along great, there was never any territorial disputes, or any severe bites, fin nipping, etc. -Success.
(Picture of my Black Pacu with my Piranhas coming soon)
Unknown date 93'
I then decided to ad another Pacu, but this time it would be a 9" Red Belly Pacu. When I released it into the tank the Piranhas and Black Pacu came to "greet" their new Red Belly Pacu tankmate. The 3 Piranhas, Black Pacu, and Red Belly Pacu got along great. There was not a single problem ever. -Success.
Unknown date 94'
By this time I have purchased 3 more Piranhas for a total of 6. The new trio of Piranha where juveniles, about 4 to 5" even though they where small they got along with the older Piranhas and Pacus.
Unknown date 94'
I decided I would try another Pacu, so I introduced another 7" Red Belly Pacu. They got along fine for about 2 weeks, but one day I noticed that his head was lying on the bottom of the tank. The Piranhas had killed and eaten this Pacu. Possible reason for failure: the tank might have been too crowded.
Unknown date 94'
The Red Belly Pacu, and Black Pacu became to large to live comfortably in the tank, so I had to get rid of them. I consider these Pacus a living example that Piranhas are not vicous unsociable animals that will kill anything in their midst. Even when I had neglected to feed them for a day or two the Pacus where not eaten.
Unknown date 94'
By this time I had moved my 6 Piranhas into a 60gallon acrylic tank.
I then decided to try some Tetras. I got a school of 7 Glowlight Tetras, and introduced them with my Piranhas. When I released them from the bag they immediatly hid among the plants. The Piranha didn't even acknowledge their presence. Eventaully the tetras ventured out and where not so afraid of the Piranhas anymore. They co-existed peacfully and the Piranhas never even tried to eat the Tetras. It seemed to be a good combination. When the Piranhas where finished eating the Tetras would eat the small particles of left over food. These Tetras lived with my Piranha for months, until my Piranhas became infected with ich. I used ich medication to treat them and this killed off all the Tetras. Even though the Tetras died from the medication I consider this a success.
June 97'
By this time I had only 5 Piranhas, because I had lost one during a power failure. The filter and aerator had stopped and there was no surface movement for oxygen exchange. I nearly lost all my Piranhas due to suffucation. One of them never fully recovered and was eaten by the others.
I now tried to intoroduce a juvenile Red Belly Pacu, about 3" in length, with my adult Piranhas. Amazingly the Pacu got along well with them for a few weeks, but unfortunately he was eaten. Possible reason for failure: I neglected to feed them for 2 days, and he was bite sized.
(Picture of my juvenile Red Belly Pacu with my Piranhas coming soon)
Late 97'
I recently attempted to mix my Wimple Piranha (not a true Piranha) with my 27 juvenile Piranhas. Right after I released the Wimple she swam straight to the corner and the biggest Piranha came over to check her out in a non-threatning way, the Wimple seemed to be scared to death of the Piranha and kept darting away, but the Piranha kept following the Wimple and getting in front of it, (I assume he was curious). The Wimple immeditaly darted away and swam into the rest of the group and started to dart into them seemingly to bite at their scales and fins. I immediatly removed the Wimple to avoid any further problems.
December 97'
I now had 2 juvenile Piranhas. I had sold my adults and the rest of the juveniles from their spawning.
I now decided to try a Red-Line Pike Cichlid. When I introduced the Cichlid the Piranhas didn't really notice him at first, because he immediatly hid under some tree root decor. But when they did they sometimes would try and attack him, but the Pike Cichlid always managed to scare them off by raising his dorsal fin trying to look big and "mock attacking" (pretending to attack just to scare them) the Piranhas. The Pike Cichlid himself was quite quarrelsome and started alot of fights that he eventually backed down from. They lived togther for approx. a month or so, until I came home one day and found the Pike Cichlid half eaten. Possible reason for failure: I didn't feed them that day, and the Pike Cichlid was quarrelsome with the Piranhas.
June 8, 98'
I decided to move my Striped Raphael Catfish in with my Piranhas. The Catfish was immediatly attacked.. but not by the Piranhas.. it was attacked by the Bushy Nose Pleco! So I moved my pleco in with my Wimple Piranha. The Catfish is currently doing fine and is recovering from the brutal attack by the pleco. During the day the Catfish hides under a piece of tree root, but will venture out during the night (its a nocturnal fish). So far the Piranhas have not shown ANY intrest in eating the catfish. I believe the reason for this is the catfish is drably colored, and is a bottom dweller. September 20, 1998 - My Raphael Catfish is still alive and well, living with my Piranhas and there has been no problems. So much for the "expert's" opinion on what should of happened -which is the Catfish was supposed to be killed. Here are the latest pictures...
The Catfish is in the bottom left corner.
My Catfish right behind my Piranhas tail.
I've also kept a number of Plecos (barely worth mentioning) with my Piranhas without ever having a problem. I currently have 1 with them now.
It may be possible to mix Piranha with Silver Dollars since they are close relatives, but I have not experimented with this yet. But if Piranhas can be kept with Pacus, why not with Silver Dollars?
I am not the only person who has succesfully kept other fish with Piranhas, a few public aquariums keep Piranhas with a number of Tetras, Pacus, and even African Cichlids. I know a few people who currently keep Pacus with their Piranhas, and even Zebra Danios. And of course the always compatible (it seems) Pleco Catfish.
David M. Schleser, the author of "Piranhas A Complete Pet Owner's Manual" has had similar experiences mixing Piranha with other fish: "I have successfully kept a single adult red-throated piranha with a small group of two-striped dwarf cichlid (Apistogramma bitaeniata) and a few immature splashing tetras (Pyrrhulina sp.) in a 50-gallon (190 L) aquarium. The dwarf cichlids even successfully reproduced and raised a group of young."
Mixing different Piranha Species:
July 98'
This mix was short lived however. I had wen't on a trip to Las Vegas with some friends for the Defcon convention and was gone for about a week. During that time I had my mom take care of my fish for me. I told her to feed them only once a day, and to chop small pieces of fish for the Wimple to eat. She did just that, but she fed them too much, and didn't remove the un-eaten food. I came back on August to find my tank cloudy with rotting fish at the bottom of the tank. I quickly removed all the un-eaten food, but I didn't change the water because I had came home very late and was already really tired. So I planned to change the water in the morning. When I woke up I went to my fishtank and noticed my Wimple acting very strange and swimming aimlessly sideways, it was dead a few hours later.
Here's a pic of my Wimple living with my Red Bellies after a few weeks. The Wimple is the smaller one. (This is a captured image of a photo, so the quality isnt that great. As soon as I get scanner I'll scan the photo instead.)
I do know someone who currently has (if I'm not mistaken) P.piraya, P.nattereri (Red Belly, and Yellow King Emperor variation), and had an S.geryi (was eventually eaten) with them as well, but as expected the geryi did nip at the fins of the others. I believe he also has a few large Central/South American Cichlids with them, and some Buttikoferi.
I went ahead and tried mixing my Wimple Piranha with my Red Belly Piranhas to see if they might be compatible together. At first I expected my Wimple Piranha to maybe act as a parasite; eating my Red Bellies scales, or maybe my Red Bellies to eat the Wimple. I watched them closely for about 2 hours and did not notice any problems between them. The Red Bellies seemed curios and casually followed the Wimple around. The Wimple just quickly darted away when they came to close. After the second day my Red Bellies lost all interest in the Wimple and didn't even acknowlegde her presence after that. I did not observe any parasitic behavior of the Wimple at all. Even if I was gone for a few hours I would come back and find no signs of removed scales or any kind of stress on either fish. During feeding time there was no problems either, my Wimple would even try to feed off larger pieces of food that my red bellies where munching on. They lived fine together for a few weeks and there was never any problems between them.
