Predator school

[Full3R]

As pirahnas hunt in schools i thought that was pretty cool, but pirahnas are illegal in australia (damn goverment) but i was curious what other predatory fish hunt in pacts (preferably freshwater species)

[rollie]

convict hunt in school or alone. the convicts may well be worst than the pirahnas. i know peoples who went swimming with big schools of pirahnas in the wild. there an old story of a school of pirahnas and a school of huntry convicts meeting in the wild. they told me that the water just boils and was red with blood. guess what? the convicts killed and ate all of the pirahnas!!! this is supposerd to be true. one of my friends, had to go to a doctor, because his convict bite him bad. and that the truth!!!

[Full3R]

What convict Cichlids?

[rollie]

they black and white or all white. the book say, they get 6 inches in length, i had seen them alot bigger than that. but they breeds like rabbits.!!!

[Full3R]

Nice, when i said what convict cichlids i was curious if when u said "convicts" i didnt know if you meant cichlids or a another sort of fish.

So they hunt in schools, neat, i know my next aquarium set up thanx rollie btw i checked out ya website i wish i could go to the real shop

[rollie]

is there not a pet shop somewhere close by?

[Full3R]

So if i were to buy some convict cichlids how many would you reccomened ?

[rollie]

at least 6

[Full3R]

Nice how do you sex them do u know?

[rollie]

the males top back fin is more pointed than the females. the females will be redder in the belly.

[Full3R]

yay belly

[Full3R]

Wait, a group of six inch fish pack hunt like small pirahna?

[William]

I am a bit confused by this thread. Convict cichlids get to be 3-4 inch, don't hunt like piranhas and are primarely territorial not schooling fish. They originate from Central America while piranhas hail from South American and have as such most likely never seen piranhas in the wild. They do however breed like rabbits.

It mut be some other fish with the nick convicts that your thinking about. Sounds lke some kind of wolf tetra from your describtion.

[Full3R]

i see, well, william do you know of any fish that have similiar pack hunting like pirahnas that arent AS dangerous?

[William]

I'm trying to think about one.

Freshwater only?

[Full3R]

doesnt have to be, its just if i was gunna by it and keep it in my aquarium id prefer it to be fresh as its not so cheap to by sea salt in my area

[William]

Ok. Do you just want a pack hunter or do you want a fish that like Piranhas attack large pray and tale chunk out them?

[Full3R]

know just pack hunter thats swim together and sort of if i chucked a dead feeder fish in kinda tear it apart, nothing to drastic

Plus that big take a chunk outta it thing would scare me a bit

[rollie]

What i said about convict and piranhas was told me ,by a man who had wrote dozens of books about fish. his name is dr. herdert r. axelrod. plus he put it in one of his books. i belive he dead now. he was a very nice man. i can show you convicts in size of over 6 inches!!!!!!!

[Full3R]

ooh do so, i still plan on buying some either way, ive never bred egg layers before so id still like to try with them

Id still like a skool of attack fish but hey william is working on that

And rollie i didnt doubt ya so dont worry ;)

[William]

ok.
Do you know in which of his excellent books dr. herdert r. axelrod says this. He is however just retelling the story right, It's nothing he ha seen for him self?

I did some additional research using fishbase and couldn't find a piranha that lives in the same area as convicts. None the less I can't discard dr. herdert r. axelrod texts. At the very least it is myth of the region. I have heard similar stories for other species.

That said. I still don't think he will get to se such behaviour with convicts in tanks. I have kept a lot of them and the just create territories and breed ;-)

I do not doubt that a convict would kill a piranha in self defense but I have a hard time seeing them hunt Piranhas.

Convicts can sometimes as you say reach more than 3-4 inch but that is considered normal size in the wild. Many cichlids grow larger in aquariums than in the wild.

[William]

I can add that convicts are an excellent choice to breed your first egg layers. Easy to breed and take good care of their young.

[Full3R]

nice, im lookin up on google to see if there is a freshwater pack hunter fish no such luck yet

[William]

Oh. I would only get one pair if you get Convicts. You will ahve loads of them soon anyway.

Still thinking about pack hunters. Considering fresh water barracudas or something like that.

[Full3R]

i see how big do barracuds get, i alwayd thought they hunted individually

[William]

No. barracudas are mostly pach hunter. It is really nice to see them in the sea when you can encounter schools with 100+ 2m+ (2.2 yard +) long barracudas prowling.

The freshwater ones can grow to be 3 ft but seldom reach that size.

[Full3R]

nice ill see if i can get my hands on sum of those, theres a guy that breeds large fish from his backyard and he has just about everything Lol

[William]

I could recommend a Gar if they are allowed in Australia and you like large predatory fish. (allthough it's not a schooling fish)

[Full3R]

how large, cause as i live with my parents under there rules i am restricted to certain ammounts of tanks

[rollie]

i did not mean,the convict went hunting for them. they just happen to meet, and they was the last one standing. maybe the piranhas attack them, and they just defend themselfes. they are a very smart fish, sometimes they lead me to beliver they can ever think. i got all of his books and when i find it i will let you know. it might be a while.

[William]

Ok. Since Full3R was looking for a pack hunter I thought you meant that the convicts had formed a hunting party and meet a school of Piranhas which they made dinner of which was why I thought it sounded so strange;-)

I have no problem believing that a group of convicts that gathered for whatever reason would kill attacking Piranhas without to much problem.

Don't worry. You don't have to find it. I just missunderstood what you said as explaine d above. Something like that could very well happen where the populations might overlap in Costa Rica where the populations may overlap or in other areas.

Ps. I'm a little yellous that you have all his books. His picture atlas is very nice.

[Full3R]

...use are all sorted out but im still confused lol, a fully grown red bellied pirahna gets to like 30cm so ive read, and 15 cm convicts killed the pirahnas

[William]

Yes. That doesn't sound to strange. You be surprised how tough convicts and other Central American cichlids are ;-)

[Full3R]

My barramundi is tough he swam so hard at a fish he launched himself outta the water into the tank lid and cracked the glas lid

[rollie]

dr. axelrod told me he seen this happen. for their size convicts is mean. if you could add another 12 inches to them, they would take anything on.

[William]

OK. you live and learn. Thanks for setting me straight ;-)

[Full3R]

Hey william and rollie, if i didnt restrict u to searching for freshwater pack hunters could u think of any saltwater pack hunters?

[William]

True barracudas ;-)

[Full3R]

Nice, my mate had a small tank that had some random fish he caught down at the river, all silver colours, none brightly coloured, but he caught several fish that when u drop a peice of raw meat in they would attack it like pirahnas i might catch me some of those aye?

[rollie]

do not know much about salt water fish at this times.

[William]

Sounds like a plan. And don't forget to give us pictures and videos ;-)

Actually sound like you should honor us by writing an article with some pictures about your fish collecting in your area. If you got the time that is.

[Full3R]

Neither do i, thats why i didnt use very good description in my last post

[William]

Well. Give us a pic and we might be able to establish what species your friend found.

[Full3R]

well, ill take the camera down next time im at his house and take sum shots, he also caught some angel fish looking fish only they were satlwater and they looked exactly like tropical angels

I got the time im on the two week holidays off school so ill do what i can, its getting light outside now u know i might go get sum mosuito fish soon

[William]

batfish maybe?

[Full3R]

ill look for some pictures of batfish to see what they look like

[Full3R]

It doesnt look like the batfish, it looks like the silver angels with the black vertical stripes on there sides, u could put the saltwater with the fresh and i could not tell the difference

[William]

Don't know what it could be than. Atleast not right now. You just have to get us a picture of that one to ;-)

[Full3R]

sure thing

[DemonShark]

Lol you found a lost specaies of fish maybe then you and your freind can make millions

[Full3R]

exploiting inocent fish

[rollie]

look at pet shops, are not they exploiting inocent fish, we making money from them!!!

[Full3R]

true, i ws not making any smart cracks at pet shop owners so take no offence anyone

[rollie]

no problem.

[Full3R]

On the subject of predator skool, even tho Silver Dollars are anything but predators, i like the way they swim together in a group so im thinking of purchasing them aswell as the convivcts (diferent tanks of course)

[rollie]

they are nice, but i tkink they get quite big, if i remember right!!