In the shop that I bought them- 3-4 inch jardini cost $40, Piranhas are only available in the other city thats where the 7 inch jardinis cost $25. I heard that red belly Pacus will mix well with piranhas and that they will mimic the behaviour of the rbp and the rbp will treat them as part of the shoal. I cannot buy more than 4 piranhas ( which is stretching it, 3 is more likely becuase of the $40 price tag) because i do not have the tank space to maintain them. What I can do though is I can put the two 5 inch red belly pacu I have with the 2 or 3 or 4 (I'm not going to buy one because I think that it is just stupid to have one) 3 and 1/2 inch piranha I am going to buy, then take the pacu out when they become bigger than 10 inches. Im seriously thinking of keeping the tank outside, what is the maximum temperature that the water should become if I keep the tank outside? ( I have a heater and I am going to put an airator, obviously) If I can buy a cooling solution for a max of $50 that would be good, any ideas?
Advice on Buying First Piranhas
- Thread starter Claw
- Start date
a piranha will need 10-15 gallons each. And from what I see right now because we have a tank of 2 5-6" piranhas with one being the dominant who does all the killing of the live feeders. Besides that they are doing fine and I don't see a problem with having only two. Downstairs my roomate has a school of 5 2" going and one of the 5 seems to be maybe a half inch smaller if that but u can definately tell he's not growing as good as the rest. If you do plan on buying a bigger number of piranhas i caution you to be prepared that feeding live fish may have to be an option. This will prevent the piranhas from eating the weaker of the group if they are underfed.
If you brought a pacu and cannot buy a big tank, then why did you get the pacu in the first place? You could also use a small computer fan to blow over the surface of the tank to disperse heat.
Computer Fan huh? How do I connect it to a plugpoint? is the question. I will also probably use the Pacu with the jardinis in the exchange for piranhas. If I am interested in breeding then how many piranha should I buy, 3 or 4? I need to know because I do not want take a risk of buying 2 and find out they are actually 2 males,not to mention aggression is spread when they are in a group, because it would be a pain to go to the shop and exchange 1 of them for a 'female' again. If its 10-15 gallons a piranha and I get 3 for like then I would not have a problem caring for three in the house (no heating and cooling problems).
You will not know which are males and which are females. There is no way to tell when they are 3", there is no tell tail way of identifying gender when they are 10+". I've read that the only way to tell visually is by witnessing two fish pair off, darken in color and soon after that the male will begin building the nest while the female sits close by.
So its recommended that if you want to have success in breeding you purchase about 8-10 RBP's at about 6"-7" and a tank no smaller then 100 gallons.
Correct me if I'm wrong AK, but breeding is triggered by keeping a stable temp of around 85 degrees F then providing sudden spikes of cooler water.
After eggs are fertilized, at some point they have to be removed from the tank and given their own. There will be over a 1000 eggs, not all will hatch but this will give you an idea how large of a holding tank you will need for red belly piranhas grow very fast from fry to 1.5" juveniles so no 10 gallon tank. At least 75 and thats probably too small as well. Do a search for AKskirmish's RBP fry tank and you'll see what I mean. Piranha's are not good parents by any means and will quickly consider their young to be food items if left in the same quarters. Also unfertilized eggs will cause disaster with water perimeters.
Breeding Reds takes commitment and alot of money. What I've said here is nothing to go by for I've never attempted breeding. Its just things I've picked up after being in the piranha hobby for 10 years. There are far more experienced hobbiests out there with this subject then me.....(*clears throat...AKskirmish. Who I know is lurking around this thread. lol.)
I hope you have alot of space.
Good luck.
So its recommended that if you want to have success in breeding you purchase about 8-10 RBP's at about 6"-7" and a tank no smaller then 100 gallons.
Correct me if I'm wrong AK, but breeding is triggered by keeping a stable temp of around 85 degrees F then providing sudden spikes of cooler water.
After eggs are fertilized, at some point they have to be removed from the tank and given their own. There will be over a 1000 eggs, not all will hatch but this will give you an idea how large of a holding tank you will need for red belly piranhas grow very fast from fry to 1.5" juveniles so no 10 gallon tank. At least 75 and thats probably too small as well. Do a search for AKskirmish's RBP fry tank and you'll see what I mean. Piranha's are not good parents by any means and will quickly consider their young to be food items if left in the same quarters. Also unfertilized eggs will cause disaster with water perimeters.
Breeding Reds takes commitment and alot of money. What I've said here is nothing to go by for I've never attempted breeding. Its just things I've picked up after being in the piranha hobby for 10 years. There are far more experienced hobbiests out there with this subject then me.....(*clears throat...AKskirmish. Who I know is lurking around this thread. lol.)
I hope you have alot of space.
Good luck.
Alright so I guess if I buy 3 or 4 it would not make a difference, I thought there would be less of a chance of them fighting if there were 4 rather than 3. I think I will take your advice Tango374 and forget breeding, how much do rbp cost where youre'll are from?
I also think that if I train the rbp to accept pellets as well as meat then I will be able to use an automatic feeder when I go on vacation. By the way I already knew what piranhas do to their young because the same thing happened to him when his piranhas bred ( the maid filled him in because she did not know what to do, he was not in town at the time)
Have you considered getting high/hex type tank?. With the footprint of a forty...maybe you could get sixty high. You said money wasn't an issue but space was.
The foot print of the tank itself is more important than the gallonage of it.
A group of RBP are very active swimmers, and will need space to stretch.
Where we live, we paid $6 for a 2 inch, and $6 for a 1 inch. 2 different stores, and months apart.
Hopefully you can figure out a way to make it all fit!! I know we're working on doing that right now!!
A group of RBP are very active swimmers, and will need space to stretch.
Where we live, we paid $6 for a 2 inch, and $6 for a 1 inch. 2 different stores, and months apart.
Hopefully you can figure out a way to make it all fit!! I know we're working on doing that right now!!
