Gold Piranha

About

Known in the hobby as the gold piranha or golden mac, this spotted Serrasalmus has no widely accepted common name separate from its scientific one. A mid-sized predator from the Amazon, Paraguay-Paraná, and Uruguay river systems, Serrasalmus maculatus grows to just over eight inches and earns its reputation as one of the more manageable members of a genuinely challenging group. In the wild it typically forms loose groups of up to about 20 fish, hugging the shallows near the bottom among vegetation and staying active through daylight hours. Young fish are surprisingly bold early on. Juveniles barely over half an inch already clip the fins of other species. Adults focus primarily on fins and flesh, and will opportunistically scavenge carrion. In an aquarium, this is firmly a specimen fish kept on its own. The debate about group keeping among experienced keepers is ongoing and heated, but the safest and most practical approach is a single fish in a well-maintained setup. Despite its reputation, it tends toward skittishness rather than aggression when kept properly. Breeding is possible and this species is considered one of the easier Serrasalmus to spawn, though raising a brood of potentially over a thousand fry is a serious undertaking. Relatively hardy and reasonably priced, this is a sensible first piranha-relative for keepers ready to commit to a long-lived, solitary predator.