About to get my first piranhas

[Kengel]

Hey, I'm about to buy a 55gallon for some piranhas, but only if I can be sure that I'll have a working piranha setup. As a complete first-timer to piranhas, I have a few questions and possible tank setups, any help is much appreciated.

55 gallon tank
Visitherm 200w heater
Emperor 400 power filter
Laborett Test Kit
Driftwood, gravel, and fake plant decorations

I'm looking to get a some sort of plecco or cleaner to help me...clean the tank, but I've heard that's taking your chance with piranhas. So, my ideas were...

Either 1 or 3 rarer piranhas, black, rhom, ect and 1 plecco
or
7ish red bellys and a plecco

All input is much appreciated. I don't want to have as many fish as possible, I'd much rather forgo a few so they can live happier lives. Also-what would it cost to feed these things? I was planning on fish cuts from Shaws, maybe some frozen bagged shrimp too.

Some of my ideas may be completely outrageous, that's why I'm posting this, tell me if they are please.

 

[Kengel]

I can't edit-sorry for the double post, will online retailers ship piranhas to ANY state, if not, how long of a car ride can they rough it through?

 

[jp80911]

First of all, welcome to mfk~!!!
55g tank is not big enough for 7 red bellies unless you get them small and plan to upgrade in the future or sell off most of them. It's not about the gallon amount but the footprint of the tank.
If you are up for solo specie, I would recommend Serra. Sanchezi, you can keep it in 55g for life. See this link for information on Sanchezi. http://opefe.com/sanchezi.html

I Believe online vendor would only ship piranha legal state, not sure if CT is one of them.
If you plan to pick on up then get a cooler box (to help retain water temperature) and bring a portable air pump, you should be able to pick one up from walmart, I think that's where I got mine. maybe lfs will have it too. as long as the water isn't too cold and you have air pumping into it you should be good for few hours without any issue.

Since you haven't bought the tank yet, I would recommend at least a 75g tank. the foot print would be much better for most of piranhas but it would still not enough for a shoal of 7 for life. 4-5 the most I would say. if you can get 75g then there will be more option for solo serra. species, even decent size rhom can be considered

 

[Mac-100]

If this is your first time owning a p I suggest you go with a rhom or a gold mac. Feeding them will not be expensive, they are not picky eaters. Shrimp and Krill are good foods. Don't feed them too many feeders, many carry diseases and goldfish can stunt growth.

As far as the thought of a plecco cleaning your tank, its mostly a myth.
The plecco can live with the piranha as long as its of the same size or bigger. The p will likely harrass it but not eat it. You will have to clean the tank yourself most of the time of leftover scraps and you still need a strong filter to help you. I recommend you use an AquaClear 110 or a filter just a strong for filtration.

Have you heard of Aquascapeonline?

 

[BooshWacka]

i would suggest to not DO NOT over stock the tank once they start getting bigger they need space

the more filtration the better

 

[Otherone]

I would suggest you hold off on buying P's all togather for at least 6-8 weeks after you purchase the tank.............you'll need a completely cycled tank before any P's can survive if not - you'll burn'em up with high levels of amonia and nitra. Read up on the nitrogen cycle and follow the procedures to the letter - than worry about which variety of P your gonna purchase.

 

[Kengel]

First of all, welcome to mfk~!!!
55g tank is not big enough for 7 red bellies unless you get them small and plan to upgrade in the future or sell off most of them. It's not about the gallon amount but the footprint of the tank.
If you are up for solo specie, I would recommend Serra. Sanchezi, you can keep it in 55g for life. See this link for information on Sanchezi. http://opefe.com/sanchezi.html

I Believe online vendor would only ship piranha legal state, not sure if CT is one of them.
If you plan to pick on up then get a cooler box (to help retain water temperature) and bring a portable air pump, you should be able to pick one up from walmart, I think that's where I got mine. maybe lfs will have it too. as long as the water isn't too cold and you have air pumping into it you should be good for few hours without any issue.

Since you haven't bought the tank yet, I would recommend at least a 75g tank. the foot print would be much better for most of piranhas but it would still not enough for a shoal of 7 for life. 4-5 the most I would say. if you can get 75g then there will be more option for solo serra. species, even decent size rhom can be considered

Thanks for the welcome Those Sanchezis look nice, however I think I'd have difficulty finding them. Unfortunately, Connecticut has carpet banned all 'exotic pets' so piranhas aren't quite legal here. I'm looking at a 1-2 hour drive to get some. I may be wrong but I've heard an inch of fish per gallon, though you say footprint is what matters, but wouldn't I be able to raise a decent sized rhom in a 55g anyway?

If this is your first time owning a p I suggest you go with a rhom or a gold mac. Feeding them will not be expensive, they are not picky eaters. Shrimp and Krill are good foods. Don't feed them too many feeders, many carry diseases and goldfish can stunt growth.

As far as the thought of a plecco cleaning your tank, its mostly a myth.
The plecco can live with the piranha as long as its of the same size or bigger. The p will likely harrass it but not eat it. You will have to clean the tank yourself most of the time of leftover scraps and you still need a strong filter to help you. I recommend you use an AquaClear 110 or a filter just a strong for filtration.

Have you heard of Aquascapeonline?

I was planning on having to clean it myself but the plecco would help. Would a rhom or gold mac have to fly solo in a 55g if I had a plecco in there as well?

I would suggest you hold off on buying P's all togather for at least 6-8 weeks after you purchase the tank.............you'll need a completely cycled tank before any P's can survive if not - you'll burn'em up with high levels of amonia and nitra. Read up on the nitrogen cycle and follow the procedures to the letter - than worry about which variety of P your gonna purchase.

I was planning on cycling the tank once I get it, however buying p's won't just be a walk into the LFS for me, so I'm making sure I can get them, and making sure what I'm buying is right for them.

 

[piranhakeeper69]

i would not recommend a pleco because they have infinate growth.this will make you need to upgrade just because of the pleco , i learned from expierence with my neighbors 30 then they upgraded to a 55 then a 56 tall , then a 125 all because of there huge pleco then when they got the 125 the pleco died!lol

 

[jp80911]

Thanks for the welcome Those Sanchezis look nice, however I think I'd have difficulty finding them. Unfortunately, Connecticut has carpet banned all 'exotic pets' so piranhas aren't quite legal here. I'm looking at a 1-2 hour drive to get some. I may be wrong but I've heard an inch of fish per gallon, though you say footprint is what matters, but wouldn't I be able to raise a decent sized rhom in a 55g anyway?

an inch per gallon is more like for neons or mollies, doesn't apply to any larger fish. logically thinking would tell you that's not correct as you can't house a 10" long fish in a 10g tank comfortably. for red bellies its more like 20 gallon per fish and you shouldn't try over stocking unless you have a tank 100g or more, IMO.
55g is only 12" wide which is not the ideal dimension for a fish that is capable of growing to 12" although it will take a long time but they can reach 8-9" rather quickly but 12" is still not ideal if you have a few in there.
75g is 18" wide, the extra 6" makes a big difference.
If you get a rhom at couple inch in size you can keep it in 55g for a good few years, they grow slower than pygos, especially after they hit 6-7" but you would eventually need to upgrade if you will be keeping the fish long enough. I've had a 4" rhom in 55g before but it still looks kinda small for it so I upgraded it to 75g and it loved it, much more active in 75g and much less shy. in the wild they had the whole river system to themselves and if you indeed care about the fish you are going to keep I would suggest you provide the biggest "home" you can afford, however, someone will think such large tank for just one small fish is a waste but it's up to the owner to use his own good judgment to make the decision.
if you go with sanchezi a 55g would be good for life as they don't get too big but still, the bigger the tank the better, maybe I'm just crazy here

 

[ballinouttacntrol]

I was planning on having to clean it myself but the plecco would help. Would a rhom or gold mac have to fly solo in a 55g if I had a plecco in there as well?

I was planning on cycling the tank once I get it, however buying p's won't just be a walk into the LFS for me, so I'm making sure I can get them, and making sure what I'm buying is right for them.

I'd honestly rethink the concept of getting a pleco. Read up a lil bit about them in the pleco section. They're somewhat mislabeled as janitors and take ALOT of dumps themselves. Creating more work for yourself.

I'll be honest though, i have a pleco with my 8 reds. It was a resident in the tank before the Ps came along.

You'd previously asked about traveling...i drove 2 hours away to get mine and probably took 2 1/2 to 3 hours to drive back. I checked with the store before i made the trip and they said yeah, it can be done. They just put them in a huge bag with some type of blackout plastic at the bottom. The original person i talked to was going to put them in a large bucket. So either way they were going to try to work with me. Oh, i bought them at about the size of a nickel so they were young at the time of the trip.

However, i've been warned and edited for implying that you should cross state lines to bring back an illegal specie (Thanks MOD with your illegal fish that just landed in your tank overnight)