ive owned my redbellies for quite a while now. 8 of them sizes 7-10" housed with a 12" pleco.
unlike most reds..mine are bold, brave and aggressive.
im very cautious when cleaning the tank but they finally got me! they will attack my hand when it enters the tank thinking its food so in order to clean the tank i have to lower my hand in and quickly pull it out so they see its not food.
i do this several times til they snap out of their "frenzy" state thinking its feeding time.
they eventually calm down and dont pay my hand/arm any attention and i go on cleaning the tank.
it was a routine w/c day up til the point of feeding the pleco.
Sometimes i feed the pleco algae tabs and in order to do this i have to physically stash them under the drift wood otherwise the piranha will eat them first.
nothing unusual...reach in with the tabs and begin tossing them under the wood. i notice a 7" red stop and stare.
i KNEW it was going to be trouble but i only had one more tab to put in place so i tried to do that before the piranha got too close.
i wasnt fast enough and he grabbed on to my thumb leaving a jagged slice down the center and several punctures on top.
luckily it was one of the smaller ones or it could have been much worse!
it was also a "defensive bite" not an "offensive bite" so that was also a good thing.
gotta be more careful and patient i suppose!
unlike most reds..mine are bold, brave and aggressive.
im very cautious when cleaning the tank but they finally got me! they will attack my hand when it enters the tank thinking its food so in order to clean the tank i have to lower my hand in and quickly pull it out so they see its not food.
i do this several times til they snap out of their "frenzy" state thinking its feeding time.
they eventually calm down and dont pay my hand/arm any attention and i go on cleaning the tank.
it was a routine w/c day up til the point of feeding the pleco.
Sometimes i feed the pleco algae tabs and in order to do this i have to physically stash them under the drift wood otherwise the piranha will eat them first.
nothing unusual...reach in with the tabs and begin tossing them under the wood. i notice a 7" red stop and stare.
i KNEW it was going to be trouble but i only had one more tab to put in place so i tried to do that before the piranha got too close.
i wasnt fast enough and he grabbed on to my thumb leaving a jagged slice down the center and several punctures on top.
luckily it was one of the smaller ones or it could have been much worse!
it was also a "defensive bite" not an "offensive bite" so that was also a good thing.
gotta be more careful and patient i suppose!
