Tank mates For Piranhas

[Piranha Matt]

Hey guys, this is my first post on here, and I will fully admit to being a Moonie regarding Piranhas so be gentle, lol! With that being said ...

I have 5 red bellies in a 72 gallon planted aquarium. Water chem is spot on, fish are happy and eating with no issues. They are about 7 months old, and are approximately 5 inches long. My question is regarding tank mates. I have tried guppies ... 14 of them all got eaten. I am now trying tiger barbs. Added 8 of them a few days ago, and now I have 5. Obviously I do not want the piranha's tank mates to be just food ... the tiger barbs are about an inch long right now ... but this seems to be the case right now. I am looking for guidance on how to successfully introduce tank mates for these guys. Any help is greatly appreciated, and thank you so much!!

 

[tlindsey]

Hey guys, this is my first post on here, and I will fully admit to being a Moonie regarding Piranhas so be gentle, lol! With that being said ...

I have 5 red bellies in a 72 gallon planted aquarium. Water chem is spot on, fish are happy and eating with no issues. They are about 7 months old, and are approximately 5 inches long. My question is regarding tank mates. I have tried guppies ... 14 of them all got eaten. I am now trying tiger barbs. Added 8 of them a few days ago, and now I have 5. Obviously I do not want the piranha's tank mates to be just food ... the tiger barbs are about an inch long right now ... but this seems to be the case right now. I am looking for guidance on how to successfully introduce tank mates for these guys. Any help is greatly appreciated, and thank you so much!!

Welcome aboard

Tbh nothing will survive with the Redbelly Piranha and I would upgrade to a larger aquarium in the future.

 

[Piranha Matt]

That is what I have been suspecting. I have been looking at some videos on YouTube regarding this subject which is why I chose tiger barbs ... but intimately it seems to be as you said ... nothing will survive in there except other piranhas

 

[Sacrifice03]

Eventually everything will become food or at least have the potential to be food, especially at that size. Sometimes you can get lucky if they are all small and get introduced at the same time.

I had a pair of convict cichlids live with a group of reds for a few months, but eventually the reds outgrew them and they became food. The longest life was a small common pleco, he made it nearly a year, but appeared to have stunted growth possible due to stress placed on it by evading the reds all the time.

 

[Piranha Matt]

This is what I had feared. I will be moving the remaining tiger barbs out to another tank today, then. I really do enjoy the red bellies though!! As they get bigger I will definitely be upgrading the aquarium ... by this time next year I will most likely have them in a 200 gallon tank. I really do appreciate the input, guys ... thank you so much

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Tankmates for redbelly ps can be difficult, once in a 200 or so then you can try adding other schooling piranhas and a wimple piranha or two, I recommend dividing the tank in half so there isn't any accidental "excitement killing" when you add new fish, after a while remove the divider.
After a few years and your piranhas are big then you can add small tetras