Why don't rattlesnakes, piranha, great white sharks, or other predators eat each other?

Question

I have heard of some species of snakes and sharks that are canibalistic, but given how predatory most of these animals are (especially piranha) why would they not chose each other as a primary food source? I've often seen collections of rattlesnakes and other predators that seem totally disinterested in each other as prey. I know often in captivity a piranha can become canibalisitic, but why in the wild would they swim in schools and not attack each other as they would any other prey? Please don't answer with guesses. Serious knowledgable responses only please.

Answer 1

its nature's way of allocating numbers that if u were to configure the food chain into a triangle....the numbers of carnivores are smaller (as they are higher up the triangle) than herbivores which are in turn smaller than the food producers...

imagine if the carnivores are to be eating one another....

...considering their relative smaller quantities...

....the result wuld be the triangle be plateaued or flattened...

and the whole food web wuld be distorted...

Answer 2

Rattle snakes eat mammals not other snakes .

, Piranhas only eat each other in tanks because they are unable to escape the over crowding in the wild the stripping to the bone thing is only problematic when the dry season occurs and the animals are stuck in small pools of water away from the rivers,

Great white sharks are not very social except when mating or at a large kill such as a whale carcass

Answer 3

In a nutshell, any species that went around killing its own kind all the time wouldn't last very long. This is why most animals don't see their own kind as prey, and also why they communicate using body language, scent and so on to avoid conflict with each other. Even when fights occur, most animals do not fight to the death - one will show submission before either is badly hurt. Evolution does not favour species which destroy themselves.