New to piranha, big Piraya or Black Rhom, and a couple of other Qs?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
if you can get fresh wild import piraya at that size then my vote goes to piraya since it has more color and the shape usually has much better body shape, head to body ratio.
it's not difficult to grow a baby piraya out to 15" but often the shape won't look as nice and it may also subject to HITH.
as for aggression of the fish, there's no guarantee regardless you go with piraya or rhom, key is the give it enough time to come out of its shell. once it feels comfortable in your tank it'll more likely to settle down and be itself.
if you have local source that you can go and see the fish in person then I would suggest you go do that and pick whichever you like the look the most. even it doesn't have the personality you are looking for you still have something nice to look at.
 
Thanks for the input. Once I have cleared the tank (waiting for a custom tank to arrive for the current occupant to be moved into) I have decided to go with a big Piraya.
 
Howdy

My vote is against piraya. I've had a half dozen in a 6ft tank. Numbers dwindled as they reached 14-16'' (not from cannibalism) and all had more or less severe HITH (despite my best efforts, documented in this forum). 6ft did not allow the fish to swim freely, I felt that if I had kept them, I would've had to upgrade to a longer tank. Your 4ft won't cut it I'm afraid. Like keeping a German Shepherd in a small bathroom for life. Some people do it, but that doesn't mean it's right.

They are true /\/\onsters if kept in the right conditions and right size tank. Most awesome piranhas of them all IMO. Just not in a 4' (or even 6') tank

HarleyK


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Hmmm. You've got me thinking. Since you use the dog analogy I will offer one of my own. If I lived in an apartment or a condo, I would not keep a Border Collie or a Beagle, but I would have no problem with a Great Dane or a St. Bernard. It is not about the size, it is about the temperament. Mind you, there are extremes. The silliness of saying you can't keep a Mbu in anything less than 1000 gallons (often spouted by people who keep Fahakas in 75 gallon or 125 gallon tanks) is one example. 4 foot vs. 6 foot vs. 8 foot long tanks almost becomes academic and so I prefer to keep out of ethical debates and analogies to German Shepherds in bathrooms...It is obviously impossible to replicate anything other than a puddle in our homes compared to anything any of us keep - even a ten thousand gallon tank is a tiny little sliver of a river or lake - but the issue is whether the fish will thrive because that is what makes them most attractive. So, appreciate the input from all of you but HarleyK, can you elaborate a bit? Are you suggesting Rhoms adapt better than Piraya to aquarium life? Or that a 120 gallon is not adequate for either? I am not married to the idea of a big piranha, just flirting with it, so your input is most welcome. Also open to contrary experiences, by the way, for folks who have a big happy and healthy piranha in something similar.

I will check out your thread(s) on HITH.
 
Howdy,

I chose German shepherd deliberately - not quite the need to run like a husky, but not exactly a couch potato, either. My pirayas loved to circle. They are not passive ambush hunters like leaf fish or even pike. Yet, they do not have the need for constant heavy swimming like trout.

I was serious when I mentioned that I didn't feel that my 6 ft tank did them justice.

I've never kept a rhom, can't comment. Maybe jp can chime in ...

HarleyK


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HarleyK said:
I've never kept a rhom, can't comment. Maybe jp can chime in ...
Click to expand...

JP....we're waiting...

lol

(I also lack experience with either) however, HITH sounds like something I want to avoid. It would be a pain to have to constantly deal with it. My vote goes with Rhom.
 
Haven't kept Piraya but imagine a fish that large would feel overly contained considering their activity level. Had big silver dollars before with basically the same temperament but lack the teeth. They would startle easy and smash into the ends of the tank. My 14" Rhom in a 220 appears to be fine. Does the ambush predator thing and swims around when it feels like it. Don't let the passivity fool you though - it can zip across a 6' tank in the blink of an eye. The bastard almost got me while adjusting the Koralia's
 
Some of the rhoms are very active, some not so much. the thing with serra is you need to be very patient with them as some can take a really long time to come out of its shell.
like Rhomadeas said, 6ft tank is tinny..in fact it's tinny for any fish if they wanted to charge at full speed.
large rhoms (most large rhoms are from Peru) don't have much color so looks a bit boring (to me at least), therefore I like large diamond rhoms, I think they look prettier but there are some locality variants just look really bad ass even they don't have much color.
Just go with something you enjoy looking, as mentioned before, if you can see it in person go check them out and pick out the one you like to look at the most.
 
:D Here's mine worst Piranha I ever had most out going and I owned lots of kinds of piranhas.
[video=youtube;aXL_4aomqHw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXL_4aomqHw[/video]
 
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