Finally got my self an RB

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Far2lively

Far2lively

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MFK Member
Mar 4, 2012
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London, England
Always wanted some sort of pirahna, so finally i now have the tank space, so i made a few phone calls to some Lfs and found a Red belly

He or she is currently in a 50ish gallon tank

I only bought one because i dont think i could house 4 or 5 in there and ive been told you have to either have one or good few of them to stop them from killing eachother

He or she is roaming around the tank seems pretty happy

Ill post a few pics later

Comments and any advice is welcome as i dont know that much about them

Thanks in advance :D
 
Congrats on Piranha Ownership! With regards to a shoal, 3 is the minimum, and the tank space needed for 3 is a 55gal. The only reason 5 or more is suggested is to observe natural shoaling behavior. However, your solo will be just fine. Piranhas are from low-light, low oxygen, blackwater. They are (in my experience) pretty forgiving of most conditions. I do dim my lights, and use blackwater, but I've yet to see a shop that sells piranhas dim the lights or use BW. lol Oxygen levels will be ok with a pump, no worries there. A varied diet is always good, some P's will nibble shredded carrots, live plants, or tomatoes in addition to tilapia, catfish, and shrimp. Good luck and enjoy!
 
_Sushi_ said:
Congrats on Piranha Ownership! With regards to a shoal, 3 is the minimum, and the tank space needed for 3 is a 55gal. The only reason 5 or more is suggested is to observe natural shoaling behavior. However, your solo will be just fine. Piranhas are from low-light, low oxygen, blackwater. They are (in my experience) pretty forgiving of most conditions. I do dim my lights, and use blackwater, but I've yet to see a shop that sells piranhas dim the lights or use BW. lol Oxygen levels will be ok with a pump, no worries there. A varied diet is always good, some P's will nibble shredded carrots, live plants, or tomatoes in addition to tilapia, catfish, and shrimp. Good luck and enjoy!
Click to expand...

Thanks :) Have a low lighting system in place and im feeding it smelt at the moment also have prawns and bloodworms to vary the diet a little, whole tomatoes?? or sliced??

Whats the best temp to keep them at my tank is at 22degrees atm will that be ok?? or shall i bump the heat up abit??

I may add 2 more not too sure yet dont want to jump in at the deep end until i know more about them.

whats black water??
 
congrats on getting the red belly, looks nice.
at the size its at I would skip out bloodworms, those are for fry or juvi rbps. what you can add is earthworms or night crawlers from a clean source. as feeding goes you can take a look at the following sticky.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?306686-The-Piranha-Nutrition-Thread
what's the footprint of your tank? footprint is an other deciding factor as well as water volume. you can have a very tall tank with large water volume but small footprint it is still not advised to put more piranhas in there.
black water a tea/brown color water caused by tannin from decaying vegetation, such as leaves and woods. it's not necessary to have a black water tank to keep piranha, often its a personal choice. In amazon piranhas can be found in black water, white water and clear water.
one important aspect when it comes to keeping piranha is that you need to have a good filtration system as piranhas are very messy feeders and produce a lot of waste so you need a good filter with enough bio media to convert ammonia to nitrite then to nitrate. they are pretty hardy but it's good to keep nitrate at 20ppm or less, so frequent water change is also needed.
feel free to ask any questions you may have.
 
22 is good. That's in the green zone on my thermometer. lol
 
ot a decent picture finally :)

named he or she PACMAN

can and one sex it??

Red Belly.jpg
 
From what I hear, Bruner is the go to guy on sexing p's.
 
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