New to piranha's HELP

[DucatiDragster]

Yepp. 8-10 for life. Red belly piranhas are always unique to keep.

 

[Armand]

So I've decided I want to get a shoal of red belly piranha. I've been keeping mainly cichla for a while and have decided to to move some fish around and have freed up a 80x20x28" tall tank for the piranha. I've never kept piranha before so I have some questions. Thanks in advance!

1. How many red belly's can I keep in this tank?
2. How quick do they grow?
3. What is the best diet to give them?

Any other advice you have to offer a newbie would be greatly appreciated.

Hi mate, welcome to the world of Piranha hobbists...

1.- A tank of the described size holds 735lt(195 US gal)so you have plenty of room for a nice pygo shoal...good!!!!.

You could keep 10-11 redbellies in there for life. Take into account that when babys it is going to be aparently easy to keep more than 20 but be aware they grow!!!, so if you want to keep them for life no more than 11, I might even dare to say 12 as much...


2.- If well fed and kept in good conditions (space and water quality) they can easy reach 8" at the end of their first year of life, then the growth rate decreases and they can reach the full size from 10 to 12 in 2 more years aprox.

3.- You must base their diet on raw fish meat, squid fillet and shrimps.
Feeding live feeders is not allways that good for several reasons we aint discussing at this moment just tell you: If you are willing to feed them life feeder be very careful for they can easily get your P's infected with different kind of parasites.

In addition, I advise you to feed them as youngsters (I know many may disagree) with chicken brest and beefheart once a week. Although their fat comtempt is high on this foods, so is the protein comtempt and it would dart the growth rate on your P's. But try not to feed this kind of food very often when they are full grown cause it might damage their health and decrease their quality of life.

Any other question dude?????

 

[TimTheBadass]

Great information so far guys. The ones I'm getting are 2-3". The guy selling me them breeds piranha. He also suggested I get 20 to cover any losses then reduce the numbers to 10 after a year.
I have been looking at different types of pygos and quite like piraya and caribe. I can't afford these at the moment as I'm only paying £2.50 for the natteri. Is it possible to add some of the rarer types at a later date if I can find them the same size?

 

[Armand]

Great information so far guys. The ones I'm getting are 2-3". The guy selling me them breeds piranha. He also suggested I get 20 to cover any losses then reduce the numbers to 10 after a year.
I have been looking at different types of pygos and quite like piraya and caribe. I can't afford these at the moment as I'm only paying £2.50 for the natteri. Is it possible to add some of the rarer types at a later date if I can find them the same size?

I think if you get 20, this nimber will cause itself the casualties...

Buying 20 to prevent future looses? There is no need for such a way of thinking specialy with that size of setup man.

I would go with 12 as I told you.

 

[Ohio Entusiast]

I think if you get 20, this nimber will cause itself the casualties...

Buying 20 to prevent future looses? There is no need for such a way of thinking specialy with that size of setup man.

I would go with 12 as I told you.

I agree. I was too preoccupied to do the math. I've always given mine ample room and have never had any problems other than the expected fin nips ever blue moon. With a 195 I'd stick with 10-12 for life. Maybe start with a few more and cull the runts or those with the least attractive color.

3-4 Piraya would be more impressive in my opinion though.

 

[jp80911]

get caribes if you can find them, for that size tank I'd go with a dozen. if you get them small then start with maybe 15-20 in case some become snacks of others.
just make sure you over filter your tank cuz piranhas are very messy eaters.

actually juvy caribe season should be near.

pirayas are nice but 20" tank might be a little too narrow for life as they get really big.

 

[Armand]

I agree. I was too preoccupied to do the math. I've always given mine ample room and have never had any problems other than the expected fin nips ever blue moon. With a 195 I'd stick with 10-12 for life. Maybe start with a few more and cull the runts or those with the least attractive color.

3-4 Piraya would be more impressive in my opinion though.

Yeah but in this case there are 2 issues to talk about:

1.- The 190 gal could hold 4 pirayas if they're young for some time but definetly not for life though.

2.- The guy is a newcomer regarding the piranha keeping so to start with RBP or even caribes would be more suitable, but not piraya.

Piraya is not a fish to start on the piranha keeping hobby unless you are a man who takes care of all the details and get informed rather good before getting his hans of that fish, but this si not common.

Some people just jump from keeping goldfish to something bigger and meaner and piranha just happens to cross in front of them (that was me), and all the learnings is just picked up from day if you know what I mean...

You cannot start with a piraya if you are like that...

 

[Ohio Entusiast]

I'm assuming the original poster knows his way around a fish room being as he's kept Peacocks and other advanced Cichlids. I'd have no problem keeping 3 or even possibly 4 Piraya in a 190. I'd prefer a tank that's deeper buut that's me.

In my experience, Piraya are really no more difficult to keep than Natteri, I have two mixed with my shoal of Natteri and treat them all the same. Coure I devote at least 2 hours a day to keeping them healthy.

 

[Armand]

I'm assuming the original poster knows his way around a fish room being as he's kept Peacocks and other advanced Cichlids. I'd have no problem keeping 3 or even possibly 4 Piraya in a 190. I'd prefer a tank that's deeper buut that's me.

In my experience, Piraya are really no more difficult to keep than Natteri, I have two mixed with my shoal of Natteri and treat them all the same. Coure I devote at least 2 hours a day to keeping them healthy.

Ok, assuming that as you say there wouldnt be other issue to cope with but:
The piraya quantity.

I am not sure to agree about 4 of those beast in a 190gal. as full grown individuals.

They can grow almost twice as big as natts and they are very strong and violently powerful swimmers.

Of course they don't reach that size within a night but I wouldnt go with 4 pirayas, not at all man even 3 of them could be quite a task....but that's me as you have said.


Cheers.

 

[TimTheBadass]

Piraya is not a fish to start on the piranha keeping hobby unless you are a man who takes care of all the details and get informed rather good before getting his hans of that fish, but this si not common.

Some people just jump from keeping goldfish to something bigger and meaner and piranha just happens to cross in front of them (that was me), and all the learnings is just picked up from day if you know what I mean...

You cannot start with a piraya if you are like that...

I'm sure I'd have no problem keeping piraya. I don't think going from cichla to piranha will be any kind of step up. I always put in a couple of weeks research taking a new direction in fish keeping.
However from what I've read piraya grow to at least 16" so a 20" wide tank will not do for life. Besides my cichla are my show fish. This will be my show tank.
Again if I decide to upgrade to a larger tank, maybe 7x2x2, can I add piraya to the shoal of natteri if they are the same size or slightly larger.