Everything I am about to write to you contains no exaggeration and only my observations in owning and studying black piranhas for twenty years. You may not believe anything or certain parts of what I say but I take solace in the fact that other black piranha owners will verify in their mind the veracity of what I have written. I attempt not to impress anyone about the black piranha as in my opinion it should be a fish best left in the wild except for cases where individuals are truly dedicated in its study. My only purpose in all these writings is to share with you all the remarkable experience of keeping a truly incredible type of fish that is so little known outside 'piranha circles'. Before getting started, I liked to give you a few tibits of events that characterized keeping black piranhas.
My first attempts of owning black piranhas could be traced back to age 13 or 14. I had already had red breast piranhas and was constantly informed of a breed of piranha that was much more aggressive and therefore more interesting to keep. At first opportunity, I found and bought a pair of 4-5 inch specimens from a local pet shop. Having no car to drive at this age, I depended on public transit for transportation of all my piranha buyings. Whenever, I bought red piranhas they would be pretty calm in the buckets or styrofoam boxes I carried them in, even when there were more than one inside. However, when i bought the two black piranhas, the pet shop put both together in a large bucket. As I was going home with them, I began to bring attention to myself by the constant splashing of water from my bucket. I looked down at the bucket and what I noticed was the two fishes trying to tear each other apart. I quickly tried to separate them with a newly bought net. I succeeded for a moment, but once I took the net out, they began to fight again. Somehow I did manage to get them home and alive. After this event, my initiation to black piranhas begun.
In another situation, I had kept 3 eight red piranhas in a 75 gallon tank with a 12 inch pleco. cat fish. The red piranhas never harmed the cat fish and both species co-existed pretty well. However, when I was lucky to be able to purchase a large 12 inch black piranha for my three reds and some cash, i jumped at the opportunity. I placed the black piranha in the 75 gallon where the pleco remain. I had thought that there would not be any problems but was I ever wrong. I had noticed nothing amiss as I keenly watched the black piranha swim around to make sure he was okay after his trip from the pet shop. He showed no aggression towards the catfish at all. I went to sleep content that everything was okay. The next morning, I woke up and immediately went to see how the black piranha was doing. He was okay but the poor catfish at 12 inches was dead as ever. Its head had been perfectly sliced off and eaten. You could see this perfectly bitten semi-circle part of the catfish that remained. What I was beginning to realize was that I had something very unique and special in terms of fish behaviour.
A year or so later, this same piranha was kept in a 35 gallon next my bed. One day I came back from work and was heading to sleep. I took a quick glance at the aquarium about two feet away from me before turning out the lights when to my horror, the black piranha was not in their. I jumped up in total fear as I suspected he may have jumped onto the bed somewhere. Luckily for me, I found him about 15 feet away from the bed on the floor and he was still breathing. I quickly placed him back into the aquarium with a large bucket as a scooper and watched over him till he recovered. What all this showed me was that the black piranha was indeed a tremendously physically powerful fish capable of knocking out aquarium tops and jumping out the tank. More recently, I was in contact with another piranha hobbyist who had sold me a black piranha. he was quite knowledgeable about black piranhas but when he mentioned about his observation that very large black piranhas(10 inches or bigger) liked to bite those plastic air hoses in half,I sorted said wow, but in all my years, I yet to come across it. So what happens about six months later, I am rearranging a few decorations in my 500 gallon and left a long piece of air hose blocking the path that my 14inch black piranha likes to take. The next day I hear a funny noise like there was something wrong with one the air pumps. I went to look and what I saw was the long air hose was sliced in half. I went to the local pet shop to buy more air hose and in the next day or two it was sliced again. I was finally convinced I better hide the hose or atleast keep it away from the piranhas favourite paths.
When it comes to the black piranhas most infamous qualities like unbelievable aggression towards all other fishes, remarkable strength and power and unyielding desire to eliminate all and every possible co-habitant it may come across, including larger foes than itself, there still remains to this day one outstanding issue that is unanswered and is an ongoing debate among those interested in piranhas. The issue is whether we truly have the real "true black piranhas" that come to the pet shops or is there really a true black piranha? After countless debates with everyone from pet shop owners to other piranha keepers, my answer to anyone is this. If the professional scientist specializing in piranhas cannot come up with a definitive answer to the question of whether there really exist a 'true black piranha', than I d'ont think anyone has the right to say with absolute certainty that they can say that a particular specimen is or is not a black piranha. The literature I presented in Black piranha part 2 bears this out well as there is much confusion about the true existence if any of the so called black piranha (S.Niger.)
I have come to the conclusion that if the term "black piranha" entails such characteristics as 1) dark gray colour, hump-backed with strongly compressed body, reaches about 14 inches, has red eyes around a dark iris; 2) behaviour towards other fish including its own kind is akin to total hatred and incompatibility, we must be talking about the black piranha in the generic sense. Moreover, I agree with the authors of the piranha studies that the changes in the black piranhas bodies as it grows towards maturity may confuse it with the white piranha (rhombeus piranha). In fact i find the two fish remarkably similar physically when they are both under six or seven inches and quite different over eight inches. Moreover, throughout each size level, they both are predisposed to attacking without cause all other habitants of their aquarium.
Specimens of piranhas that come to my local area as black piranhas usually are of three different species. They usaully come from their native South America in boxes containing 10 or so specimens at 3 to 5 inches in length each. Invariably, the majority of the ten specimens will display acute damage to body and fins as they are probabably fighting one another thoughout the trip and is only saved from death by in some cases the chemical fish importers use to calm fishes down when in transportation.
One of the three species is in my opinion the species identified in most piranha books as the STRIOLATUS or at least a fish I believe to resemble the striolatus. Little is written about the striolatus, but my experience with what I like to call the striolatus, is that it is a fish that is apparently found to live in the same waters as the black and white piranhas and displays alot of aggression towards other fishes. However, the striolatus can be easily distinquished from the black and white piranha using two visible body differences. The striolatus's caudal fin has one pronounced dark band covering the first half of the caudal fin whereas the black and white piranha has two. Moreover, the striolatus's mouth and chin looks like it ran right into a wall leaving it perfectly perpendicular to the rest of its body. the black and white piranhas on the other hand have a more pointed chin and mouth. The colour and body of all three at under six inches are fairly similar. The striolatus generally are solitary piranhas and should be kept alone. It has been my experience as well as others, that they will attack and harrass other piranhas including much larger red piranhas. However, they will only grow up to no more than 6 inches and they do have a smaller mouth than the red, black and the white piranha thus limiting their ability to really harm other piranhas. This species of piranhas does display a rather aggressive picture of itself as it likes to constantly attack the aquarium glass, which in turn convinces unsuspecting buyers that it is a black piranha. In terms of aggressiveness, it is less aggressive than the black and white but more aggressive than the red piranha. Should be kept alone.
Black and White Piranhas or S.niger and S.Rhombeus. Although there are many pictures of what many piranha authors feel is the black piranha, I have yet seen one that look like the ones I own or have seen on display at public aquarias in the U.S. and Canada. But, the pictures you do see in piranha books showing the white "rhombeus" piranha is identical to what I see and consider as the white piranha avaliable in Canada and is either sold as the black or rhombeus piranha. As I was saying earlier, the black and white piranha are practically identical in body appearance under six inches in size. There are very minute differences that separate the two, and I can honestly say that I sometimes am hard press to be able separate the two. The black piranha has a very slightly larger jaw and head. In most cases it will have red around the iris of its eyes whereas, in most cases the white piranha has white around its black iris. In terms of behaviour at this size range, both piranhas are totally solitary and will not accept any other fish larger of smaller in its tank. Both will attack all living creatures in its tank until either it or its foe are dead. The rhombeus are more shy and particular like to hide in plants or behind large objects. When prey food is presented, the white piranha will stealthly attack from its hiding place, nipping at its preys tail and fins. When in fighting posture, the white piranha strikes or threatens its enemy by pointing its mouth towards the surface of the aquarium before striking.
The black piranha on the other hand likes to swim more and tends to try to eat its prey in one or two bites as it has a larger mouth. When it prepares to fight or strike out at a foe it does the opposite of the white piranha. It points its mouth and jaw towards the bottom of the aquarium before striking like red piranhas do.
When the black and white piranha reaches over six inches, the
differences really start to reveal itself. First of all the
white piranha as far as I know, doesn't grow much more than 9
inches as its smaller body and mouth are more suited to taking
bits off its prey, thus lending itself to reaching smaller
statute than the black. Moreover, Its body remains somewhat thin
and very silver coloured with a rather sharp pointed chin and
mouth. It really remains the same looking except for a more
prominent hump back.
Many other fish hobbyist have asked me why I am so into piranhas and especially black piranhas. My response to this question is this, I am in possession of a truly fascinating and remarkable creature of nature that is has some totally unique characteristics not found anywhere else. I point specifically to the black piranha's inherent predisposition against co- habitation with any other fishes. From the day it is born to the day it dies, it neither accepts nor tolerates any other living organism in its tank. In fact, in some cases I have overfed my black piranha by giving him several very large prey fish at one time. In most cases other type of piranhas like reds would eat what they can and leave any others alone till a later time, not so the black piranha, it will purposely tear into and kill all the prey fish leaving none alive. In other cases, I have tried putting much smaller black piranhas into tanks with very large red piranhas. For example, a three inch black piranha mixed in with several 9 inch fully grown red piranhas. The result is inevitably the black piranha will systematically attack the much larger red piranhas until such time, the black piranha either becomes the only fish in the tank or it dies from its injuries in battle. Even of more interest is the fact that when black piranhas meet other black piranhas of similar and various sizes, the will to attack increases to a new level of aggression and anger. It appears that black piranhas automatically sense that when encountering another of its species it must act immediately to defend itself by attacking first. This whole bizarre behaviour lends itself to some important questions. 1) How do they ever reproduce if they are always trying to kill one another and 2) would they not eventually overrun their natural environment by killing all they come across? These are questions to which I earnestly seek an answer to but have yet to discover. As a result I have for the past couple of years experimented with introducing a variety of very large aggressive South American fish into very large tanks with a single black piranha. I want to find out if these other fishes like a 15 inch red devil or a pair of 12 inch jack dempsey or even a 13 inch buttercoferi can present some form of defense that will allow it to survive in the tank with the black piranha. So far none has survive though each one had presented different methods of defence and attacking responses but in the end, the black piranha always ended victorious. I also tried various decoration changes by putting alot of plants and other objects, I had hoped that other fish like red piranhas would be able to hide from the black piranha when being chased. This was somewhat successful but what I learned was that the black piranha would continue to chase its foes until eventually the foe would tire out and unwittingly be exposed to the black piranhas' attack. I must say that the kind of behavior I have just described, is most evident in black piranhas over 10 inches in size. At this size, it would appear in the piranha's mind atleast that it fears nothing and its aggression is at its greatest.
So if one can conclude, we have in the black piranha a creature that like no other on earth is totally dedicated to a solitary life and will expense all its energy throughout its life in maintaining that status. It accepts no other and tolerates none. It backs up this inherent disposition as the most physically powerful and aggressive piranha there is. It just may be one of the meanest creatures on earth and if you could imagine owning one, you would know you have something very unique from nature and because so little is known or written about it, it is so mysterious too!
To finish up I would like to leave a few interesting things other black piranha owners and I have noticed when having them as pets. 1) When they are very large size (over 10 inches) they tend to exibit more pronounced habits that we find very interesting. A) They like to follow your movements as you walk around the aquarium. Even if you are more than 20 feet away, they can usually see you and will automatically make a motion towards the glass in attempt to threaten you. B) Unlike many other fishes and other piranhas, if you tap the glass hard inorder to scare the fish, most other fish would scurry away seeking safety. Not so the black piranha, whose response would be to ignore you with an air of contempt. C) Black piranhas when captured in the net or during a attack or fight with a foe will make a clearly audible grunt that can be heard clearly outside the aquarium. Other owners and I have hypothesize that this grunt is a warning or signal to other fish in it natural environment. They use this because they come from dark and deeper parts of the amazon river where visibility is much poorer than other parts of the amazon. D) likes to bite at the little red/orange light of heaters whenever they flicker on and in the "I WILL NEVER FORGET FILE": I once observed a group of one inch baby black piranhas feeding on some tublifex worms located in the middle of the aquarium. Incredibly, one of the baby black piranhas stood hovering over the worms like it was protecting its food source. When another baby black piranha came close to eat, it would be repelled by the one hovering above the worms. this would almost last for 30 minutes. You just had to be there to see this incredible scene.
Finally, black piranhas grow about half an inch per year which is pretty slow, however, they do grow to 14 inches which means you can raised one to that size for over 25 years or more and moreover, they are extremely hardy fish that would need to be under really bad conditions to die. But, I would absolutely recommend the ownership of black piranhas to only very experienced adult fish keepers. They are much too unpredictable and dangerous for children or the inexperienced to handle. I hope you have enjoyed. Thanks!