introduction and red bellied piranha question

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

keeno2086

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jan 13, 2015
21
0
16
kingston, uk
hey MFK!
im new to the forum but have kept tropical fish for a fewyears. last year I was away working so my missus had to clean my tank out, inthe process she managed to drop a 10kg piece of rock, completely destroying my8 foot tank.
at the time I had 3motoro stingray, 2 quite large, and a beast of a RTC along with some Oscars,plecs, parrot fish and a walking catfish. all the fish had to be moved to my 5foot grow out tank, but it soon became apparent that there was not enough roomfor long term, and I was not in the financial postion to replace the 8 foottank. so I had to sell my stingray and RTC. truly heart breaking!
anyway, things aredifferent now and I will be getting a new 8 foot tank soon enough. so I amlooking to build on what I have again and eventually get some stingray again.my question to you all is, can 1-3 red bellied piranha be kept in a communitytank???

I have done my research but am getting mixed answers. fromwhat I have read, it depends on tank mates, or wouldn’t work no matter what isin there. my current stock is:
3 x tiger Oscar (5-7 inch)
2 x plecs (12-14 inch)
1 x parrot fish (3-4inch)
1 x walking catfish (12-14 inch)
2 x peacock bass (4-5 inch)
2 x paroon shark (4-5 inch)

the red bellied piranha will be tiny at first, maybe 2 cm. Iwill obviously be separating them until a little bigger. my thoughts are thatif I get them while small and grow them with larger tank mates maybe ill getaway with it.


thanks for reading and for any replies in advance.

 
Anything you put in with piranha's will be miserable from all the nipping. They may be goners straight away or it might take a while but they will have a crap life. I've tried to mix Oscars and pleco's but have taken them back out because felt so sorry for them. I certainly wouldn't risk any peacock bass or paroon sharks with them. It's tempting to try and mix piranha's because they are cool, but from my experience, they only work in a same species tank. That's just my experience, you'll prob get others that have mixed them
 
Welcome to MFK!!!

I'm glad you're passing on the Ps. And, I hope you're not aiming on putting anything else in the tank since it is currently very over stocked. Very soon, you're going to have 3 feet of oscars. Your P bass are going to become even larger than the oscars. And, your paroons are soon going to require a swimming pool size aquarium. If you're not prepared to go larger than the 8 ft tank (240?) I'd start thinning out the stock now while it's easier to move juvenile fish.
 
thanks for the reply Oddball,
I realise that im overstocked, dont worry, I have big plans for the near future. I have a workshop on my property which I have been preparing for a indoor tropical pond. it has been a dream of mine for some time. all my big cats and rays when i get them will end up in there. it will be more than big enough to cater for them. should be ready by the beginning of next year
 
I would suggest you get more than 3 piranhas though, if you got 3 in few months you will ended up 1 left in the tank :D
 
Well, I put 7 Convict fry I bred into my RBP (Two 11+ ") tank around four months ago as feeders. I will have many more than 7 (sub adults & new fry) in there by next month!

I did however had major issues with mixing these same RBP's when they were around half that size with Green Sunfish. The only good thing that came out of that combo was that the Green Sunnies took meat chunks SO aggressively in front of the RBP's that they actually trained them off of live food.

I also added the Green Sunnies the the RBP's established tank as food. The Mean Greenies quickly took to beating the the tar out of the RBP's.

The best chance that you will have for RBP's in a community setting is to have plenty of structure for the tankmates, and avoid high priced tankmates that you would consider a "substantial" loss if they do turn into feeders!
 
Unless you plan on getting a shoal of 5-6 RBPs I advise you not to get any,
also they grow really slow after 5-6" mark and and like .5" a year after 9-10"
so your other fish will outgrow them and most likely kill or eat the RBPs or
they die from the stress if being harassed constantly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom