New RBP owner

[tk777]

hi everybody,

i set up my tank 2 weeks ago, and finally got the water to where i wanted it to be. so today i bought 6 small rbp's! i know all of you are going to be critical of me, but i'm on my way to a bigger tank and i couldn't stand to separate them at the store. i have a 55 gallon with a marineland mechanical filter, heater and power head. i know the tank is too small, but i wanted to keep the fish together... and i should have a bigger tank in the near future.

the fish seem to be doing very well. only 5 mins after releasing them into the tank, i threw a couple of krill into the tank and they fed like crazy. their speed and power is amazing. i was happy to see that there must have been little stress from moving tanks it seems like an alpha male has already been established, as most of the fish will follow his lead around the tank. only one of the fish seems to have had better days, his right eye is deformed and he is missing most of his tail (he still fed though!)

i plan on feeding them krill, shrimp, bloodworms and zucchini... and moving them to a 125gal. they are beautiful fish and i'm having a blast. i plan on keeping a single wolfie in my 55 when i get the new tank for the piranhas.

just wanted to introduce myself, this is my first honest effort at keeping an aquarium and i'm amazed at how fun it's been already!

Tyler

 

[koop171]

You are going to want to look into more filtration for your tank Ps are VERY messy eaters. Also Don't get your hopes up on that one being a male Ps are VERY VERY hard to sex until they are adults and most ppl cannot tell the difference then unless they breed.
Some pics would be great thou of this tank so we can all enjoy. And once you get your 125 up and running (should do it fast if you can) they should do fine for life in it as long as they have hidding spots from each other and plenty of food and filtration.

 

[Big-Kev]

Sounds like a good plan to me. You could also add some tipalia and catfish fillets to the food list.

 

[tk777]

haha, yea i understand that my "alpha male" may not be a male at all, which is fine by me. he/she just seems to be the most dominant fish in the tank. i do plan on religious upkeep for my water, but i must say that the krill they ate earlier seemed to be entirely consumed (they chomped up even the floating debris). i'll def look into just adding another of the same filter i already have if the upkeep becomes overwhelming. i have plenty of cover in the tank, that's where they've been spending most of their time.

i'll work on getting some pics up, i just wish i had a nicer digi camera. thanks for the responses.

Tyler

 

[JoeDizzleMPLS]

i gotta tell ya, it's been a very long time since i heard someone that was completely new to piranhas bringing their new fish home and not throwing a ton of goldfish into the tank... way to do your research before you got your fish.

it sounds like you've got a great plan in place, especially if you are planning on upgrading to a 125 in a few months. you probably won't be able to introduce pellets into their diet until they are around the 2" mark, but once you can, i would suggest making that the main part of their diet.

as for filtration, it sounds like you'll be good for now, but the sooner you get another filter on there, the better. even if you keep up with tank maintenance, you want to make sure that you have enough bio filtration to keep up with the bio load in the tank, so getting another filter on there and making sure it is established before they get much bigger would be a good idea.

other than that, it sounds like you did your homework, welcome to the hobby