help please

[JoeDizzleMPLS]

i actually dont have any yet im waiting and doing my research first this was just the most promising tank i have found so far but i am going to hold off and maybe a 48x18xsomething 75 or 90g will come up then i will try to afford it.


i would be keeping red bellied piranha. my lfs only has one and its missing an eye if i ended up having to buy that one then get the 2 more at a later date they would most likely kill the one with one eye right?

is 3 not enough or should i be good? or can i have another one or two depending on tank size

good call on doing the research first... realistically, the tank you first mentioned would be ok, 3 or 4 would fit in there just fine because growing them out to the 12" mark isn't very realistic for everyone, but by all means, grab a larger tank if you can.

if i were you, i would wait to buy them until you can get them all at once, if you end up with a 75 or 90 gallon, you could probably pick up 8-10 little guys and either let them thin themselves out or get rid of a couple as they get bigger so that you end up with 4 or 5. the numbers game with pygos is kinda ridiculous, you can keep 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc, etc.... there are no magical numbers until you start getting up to where you are so overcrowded that water quality and space becomes an issue, although i don't generally recommend overcrowding until your tank is at least 125 gallons.

 

[frontosablkrhom]

i would wait and not buy the piranha with one eye. ha see if you can get some one inchers and get them eatin blackworms.

 

[Armand]

i actually dont have any yet im waiting and doing my research first this was just the most promising tank i have found so far but i am going to hold off and maybe a 48x18xsomething 75 or 90g will come up then i will try to afford it.


i would be keeping red bellied piranha. my lfs only has one and its missing an eye if i ended up having to buy that one then get the 2 more at a later date they would most likely kill the one with one eye right?

is 3 not enough or should i be good? or can i have another one or two depending on tank size

Buddy there is no 100% reliable rule when talking about P´s. The first time I kept Piranhas, 23 years ago I had this two 10" redbellies in a 120 lt tank for 5 years and without any problem at all (ended up selling them).

About 10 months I got 6 redbellies, (I wanted to end up keeping at least 4 so I thought 6 would be ok just in case one or two ended up eaten) so far so good they all are OK and live in a 100 gal. along with a caribe.

Then acouple of months ago I got this 3 little caribe (I wanted to end up with 3 so regarding my succes with reds I just bought 3 of them thinking there ain't gonna be casualties). Things turned out different, first two of them killed one and eated him, then they turned against each other and now there is just one of them remaining...

Regarding what I told you, if I where you I would get a big tank 100 gal as a minimun, and remmember, with P's the biggest tank you can get is the best, and get myself 6 piranha just in case there is some casualties, if everything turs out ok you have 6 rbp in an appropiate size setup.

If you feel it's getting cramped as time passes by and your P's grow you can always sell one or two as I am going to do just to end up with 5 full grown in a 100 gal.

Cheers.