Can a red belly be kept solo?

[F1 VET]

It's obviously more natural to see a school of red bellys and you will see shoaling behavior which is especially interesting when they feed.

But a solo pygo is better then no pirnaha!



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http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?504763-Cheap-plants-less-nitrate!-POTHOS

 

[kevbc03]

any piranha can be kept solo. will the pygo show its natural behavior? probably not...its better than keeping a pair of pygos. is the 45 gal a tall? you want an aquarium that has length, not height.

 

[rfinstra]

a buddy of mine has had a solo red belly in a 30 gallon tank for about 2 years how, it is healthy, growing fast and aggressive, no problem with that, but schooling them is great also

 

[ballinouttacntrol]

a buddy of mine has had a solo red belly in a 30 gallon tank for about 2 years how, it is healthy, growing fast and aggressive, no problem with that, but schooling them is great also

Your buddy needs a bigger tank


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[madmanmac]

i have had groups of piranhas acouple of times before and it was alot of fun, but didnt want the hassel of having a 140g tank any more, and since serras are close to impossiable to get in denmark, now i have a 70G with a solo RBP and i have never had a better experience with fish, as oppose to the groups ive had were shy. this guy is chasing me when i walk by him.. and its not a shoaling fish

 

[justarn]

i picked up a solo caribe the weekend, he was alone in the shop as all the others were sold.. he was left due to the very top of his tail having a crook, im a sucker for a charity case lol! he's already finger chasing at 1.5 inch well please as i have been missing my mannie i had a few years ago!-) the mannie was a nervous wreck at this size!!

 

[JwHiser13]

I do not keep piranha (would love to one day) but I've read alot about keeping them. Being they are more timid than anything else keeping solo would probably keep the fish hiding more often then not. But like I said that's just what I've read not from experience. I would be willing to bet seeing these guys act somewhat as they would in a river system would be more fun but who knows all fish have their own personality. Go for it, especially since there's only a 40 gallon involved.


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[bomber]

The dude said he only had a 45. So based on that it looks like you agree, that he should keep a solo pygo.

@OP, there's absolutely nothing wrong with keeping a solo pygo. You will notice that they are more interactive, bold and aggressive when kept solo.

For those who believe that they "thrive" in groups in the home aquarium, because that's how they appear in the wild, it seems like a common misconception.

Quoted directly from OPEFE:According to world expert on piranhas, Dr. William L. Fink, piranhas do not shoal in the literal sense. Piranhas form groups or more specific a school of individuals having commonality. See further remarks my own opinion of pet stores and how they describe what they see.

Pygocentrus species form small groups of individuals that stay far apart from each other and group together when feeding frenzy or during fish runs. The same goes for Serrasalmus species. The aquarium is an area that is not the same in nature. You, the hobbyist, can jam the species and call it a shoaling but that is not what it really is, more like forced grouping. During the fish runs (in the wild) schools of fishes, including piranhas are seen. But again, this is nature putting them together, where in normal circumstances they are kept apart by natural processes and behavior.

So I cringe each time I read that someone is shoaling their fish (pet dealers are notorious for this assumption).





Good luck with your decision.

Great post.

 

[JwHiser13]

Great post.

This is a great excerpt! Several times it does mention however that they do in fact occur in groups (the RBP anyway), and reading a write up and taking from it what you want to justify keeping a fish that will clearly exceed the confines of the aforementioned tank if just that, a justification because of an impulse to own this awesome fish! That's just like accepting the common myth that fish will grow to the size of their tank! Fish never stop growing until the die. Like I've said before I've never kept this species but I can tell you that I wouldn't come to a forum until I had exhausted my ability to research the animal I wanted to keep. Would you keep an Oscar in a 55 gallon tank for life because "experts" say that's the minimum for a fish that can potentially reach 15 inches. I can say that ever person I've known to keep RBP have kept in groups because they wanted to see natural behavior of the fish. I can also say that these piranha aren't the aggressive monsters everyone thinks they are but on the more docile side.


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