Aliright as some of you may know I have two roughly 3 inch red belly juvies and I keep hearing that I need to add another one to balance out the dominance or something along those lines. Here is my dilemma, my LFS does have juvenile Red Bellies but they are only about an inch long, would it survive being in the same tank with my older 3 inch ones? If not, there is a golden piranha that is about 2 inches long, now could i add that one to my tank or will my current piranhas eat it still? Also, would the golden piranha possibly kill my red bellies when it get's older or will the size difference keep it in check?
Mixing Piranha Species
- Thread starter RedBellyRhen
- Start date
gold piranhas are typically either S. maculatus, S. spilopleura, or S. rhombeus. All of the above are not only different species, but members of the Serrasalmus genus. It's generally a bad idea to mix genera.
Mixing other members of the pygocentrus genus can be done carefully.
Mixing other members of the pygocentrus genus can be done carefully.
so bad idea for a first time piranha owner and i should just get another red belly? Would the little 1 inch one survive with my 3 inch ones?Diogenes;3993399; said:
RedBellyRhen;3993401; said:
get some caribe or piraya the mix relly well with reds you'll be able to pick them up at 3/4 inch! just make sure u move your decor around to confuse your reds that are already in tank before adding new fish this will stop them fighting
Alright thanks! So just change things up and i could put the little guys in there and they would be fine?pikey;3993408; said:
piraya get super large 24" in the wild. You'd need a massive tank. Caribe get up to around 14" or so as well. Just keep that in mind.
Diogenes;3993413; said:
oh snap.... yeah i think i'll just get a same size red belly off of aquascape thenDiogenes;3993413; said:
yeah that is in the wild but we are talking about a tank here and with good care the right diet these fish will only grow to about 7" in first year then about 1~2" per year after that! i'd be looking at a mixed pygo shoal with the thought of upgrading in a year or 2 if you have the space time and funds
yeah i just looked up the piraya not as cute as the red belly when they are all grown uppikey;3993429; said:
but the caribe are BEAUTIFUL!!! Do they lose their red fins when they grow up? Or am i lookin at the wrong fish 
RedBellyRhen;3993438; said:yeah i just looked up the piraya not as cute as the red belly when they are all grown up
my caribe are still orange on there bellies and fin's they just seem to lose the black spot as they get over 10 inch. but still ur right there beautifull. personaly i think there the best looking pygo u can buy