Piraiba

[Oompa Loompa]

Yeah, I see your point. It does kind of turn into an ethical debate about whether you should keep anything at all. But among freshwater fish, these are huge in size, have tremendous geographic ranges, and have the world's largest river as their native habitat...
Seems to me that perhaps they comprise a special case.

Yeah, there's a reason not many people keep them

 

[Frank Castle]

Yeah, there's a reason not many people keep them

you mean it's not normal to keep a fish in a tank that grows 300lbs???

Honestly, in my professional opinion if I have to have one lol, I would only keep it with other large catfish, turtles or Crocodilians. There's virtually no chance of other FW fish retaining a healthy happy lifestyle with these brutes. IF the Paraiba, Croc or Turtles were all the correct size meaning the crocs and turtles would not only have to be big enough and similar enough growth rate they could never be taken into the catfish's mouth, it would equally have to be vice versa for the Paraiba as well.

My advice, keep them alone. Do you know how big a tank for a Paraiba and a Black Caiman full grown would have to be? I'm going with a minimum of 40ft any direction

 

[Oompa Loompa]

you mean it's not normal to keep a fish in a tank that grows 300lbs???

Honestly, in my professional opinion if I have to have one lol, I would only keep it with other large catfish, turtles or Crocodilians. There's virtually no chance of other FW fish retaining a healthy happy lifestyle with these brutes. IF the Paraiba, Croc or Turtles were all the correct size meaning the crocs and turtles would not only have to be big enough and similar enough growth rate they could never be taken into the catfish's mouth, it would equally have to be vice versa for the Paraiba as well.

My advice, keep them alone. Do you know how big a tank for a Paraiba and a Black Caiman full grown would have to be? I'm going with a minimum of 40ft any direction

Oh yeah, it's an insane tank size for a full grown piraiba and a full grown caiman. Piraibas grow VERY slowly though. I'm not sure about black caimans but I don't think they grow too fast either. Nobody should really keep these though. A arapaimag keeps at least one I think. So does B bigrich

 

[Frank Castle]

Oh yeah, it's an insane tank size for a full grown piraiba and a full grown caiman. Piraibas grow VERY slowly though. I'm not sure about black caimans but I don't think they grow too fast either. Nobody should really keep these though. A arapaimag keeps at least one I think. So does B bigrich

it's just the point of trying to find something that meets that formula to house them with. It's tankmates have to be too big to fit in it's mouth and at the same time not be big enough to be a threat to the catfish. It's like finding tankmates for Oscars, but X3000

 

[Oompa Loompa]

it's just the point of trying to find something that meets that formula to house them with. It's tankmates have to be too big to fit in it's mouth and at the same time not be big enough to be a threat to the catfish. It's like finding tankmates for Oscars, but X3000

I'm not sure there's much that poses a threat to a piraiba. There's no fish that would do any damage. The largest crocodilians, like salties, niles, black caimans, tomistomas, and maybe siamese crocs could do something but that's about it.

 

[Frank Castle]

I'm not sure there's much that poses a threat to a piraiba. There's no fish that would do any damage. The largest crocodilians, like salties, niles, black caimans, tomistomas, and maybe siamese crocs could do something but that's about it.

Any Crocs could kill a Paraiba, it just depends on size of each animal. I also wouldn't class Siamensis as a large Croc and I doubt either Gharial poses a threat with their narrow lightly built jaws. Possibly Orinoco or American, maybe Mugger and Broad-snouted

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

B. filamentosum are among champions of growth reaching 2' in 6 months.

The one you probably keep referring to is B. capapretum aka false piraiba. They take 2 years to get to 2'.