I am a recent fish owner who has just recently started raising a group of 5 red belly piranhas. They were purchased as babies and are roughly 4 months old and living in a 50 gallon tank. The tank that I used originally had a bronze corydora, electric blue acara, and some tetra. All three of these fish were nursed back to health by my friends and I due to them being left unattended during the pandemic. When we introduced the piranhas, they began to nibble on the fins of the others (as they do), however it became so much of an issue that we had to remove the acara and tetra. The corydora was good enough at hiding or stayed in open spaces that the piranhas were too shy to venture into so he never was really bothered and was always good at cleaning up the bottom of the tank for extra food. My friends and I tried introducing plecos into the tank, but they would disappear without a trace. Eventually the corydora was found dead either due to the piranhas or some other factor. Now there is a large amount of algae and food waste at the bottom of my tank. I change out 25 percent of the water in the tank every week and try my best to keep the habitat clean. Soon my piranhas may be moving to a larger 165 gallon tank and I don't want it to be a simple species tank due to the size ratio between the tank and the current size of the piranhas. What would anyone who has experience recommend buying?
Needing a tank mate for my piranhas
- Thread starter Suggie
- Start date
Even in a 165 gallon tank, you should not attempt to keep anything else with your piranhas. A group of 5 red bellies will almost definitely eat anything that is put in there. Maybe not right away, but eventually. If you don't want a single species tank, piranha is not the choice for you.
I agree with you.Normall person dont keep piranhas with anything....
I never had a problem keeping my group with other fish. Mainly with Chinese algae eaters and jewel cichlids. Kept probably five CAE and ten jewels along with six rbp in a 6x2x2 when the rbp were probably 9”.
My previous attempt ended with the convict cichlids I was trying, killing my five 4” rbp.
My previous attempt ended with the convict cichlids I was trying, killing my five 4” rbp.
Though in the wild caiman do prey on piranha.
I agree that there aren’t many options that will work with piranha. Especially given they’ve taken out an armored cat, which is generally the one thing that can work. Any “tankmates” are really just eventually going to be feeders, so I wouldn’t waste your money on anything but guppies and tetras (which may be ignored by a large piranha).
Pretty much anything that won’t get eaten is liable to injure or kill the piranha (big cichlids, gar, etc), but only after most likely getting significantly hurt.
For a year I kept a solo RBP with a banded leporinus. Most of the time was constant fighting for dominance. One of those fights ended up with the leporinus losing an eye. That fish is tough as nails though, and eventually got the better of the piranha. All I know is I went to bed with a living piranha, and the next it was dead in a corner - not a scratch on it. My theory is the lep took a swipe at night and caused him to swim into a wall, where he died of a concussion.
Other tankmates were a school of BA tetras, they lasted a week, and a Texas cichlid. It tried to lip lock the piranha and lost its mouth (tried that one twice). Soon after it was bit in half.
