Planning RBP Tank

cjs4873

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 9, 2008
347
0
16
Washington, Tyne and Wear UK
Diogenes;2644439; said:
i think i'm gonna give it a try with my fish. Thats awesome.
.

come and have a look at the rest of my set up.

All Welcome :D
 

pbucch

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 31, 2008
54
0
0
central Connecticut
alright dude, I think I am going to mostly address the pygos being skittish thing. In a 125 US gallon tank I would roll with at least 7 fish.

its true, oh its true. BUT with some some conditioning I think you can overcome this.

step 1, set it up right, give them a place to hide, or dense vegetation on one side.
step 2, Hikari Cichlid Gold floating pellets. Once you get your fish to eat these, drop one pellet per fish, multiple times a day, Im talking like 3-5 times a day. This gets the fish used to coming to the surface, where most of their natural predators are. I believe this really emboldens the fish. Once you do this you will not only see the benefits of this awesome pellet food, but behavioral differences as well.
step 3, enjoy, here is a vid from monday of a piece of tilapia getting mowed in my tank, 5 fish in a 55(way too small)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cNiA_tPGX8
 

cjs4873

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 9, 2008
347
0
16
Washington, Tyne and Wear UK
pbucch;2644450; said:
alright dude, I think I am going to mostly address the pygos being skittish thing. In a 125 US gallon tank I would roll with at least 7 fish.

its true, oh its true. BUT with some some conditioning I think you can overcome this.

step 1, set it up right, give them a place to hide, or dense vegetation on one side.
step 2, Hikari Cichlid Gold floating pellets. Once you get your fish to eat these, drop one pellet per fish, multiple times a day, Im talking like 3-5 times a day. This gets the fish used to coming to the surface, where most of their natural predators are. I believe this really emboldens the fish. Once you do this you will not only see the benefits of this awesome pellet food, but behavioral differences as well.
step 3, enjoy, here is a vid from monday of a piece of tilapia getting mowed in my tank, 5 fish in a 55(way too small)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cNiA_tPGX8
Very nice m8, would look even better with a black back.
 

pbucch

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 31, 2008
54
0
0
central Connecticut
Thanks CJ, Im kinda screwed with it being so close to the wall, dont want to take it down either, maybe one of those stick on vinyl ones?

Ive seen your tank over on p-fury, great job!
 

cjs4873

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 9, 2008
347
0
16
Washington, Tyne and Wear UK
pbucch;2644479; said:
Thanks CJ, Im kinda screwed with it being so close to the wall, dont want to take it down either, maybe one of those stick on vinyl ones?

Ive seen your tank over on p-fury, great job!
Thanks alot. How far is your tank from the wall?
 

austrian_predator

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2009
71
0
0
Austria
Diogenes;2644103; said:
if your adding all the pygos at once and thats all thats going to be in there apart from the livebearers then i would say quarantine is unnecessary.

I don't see why livebearers would be incompatile with the pygos, aside from the fact that the pygos will eat them, especially when they grow up. I would cycle with some livebearers, leave em in, maybe get some more, and then introduce my pygos to the tank. A that point maybe they will have setup a little breeding colony and the piranhas won't wipe them out quite as quickly.
ok i see, but the quarantine question still stands b/c i might get some more fish later on ;)
actually i planned to do it exactly like you recommend, cycle with some mollies, add some more (and maybe some neons/corys), and then the piranhas
great to see that i'm not the first with this idea :)

@ pbucch: that's great, would be awesome if it works with chichlid pellets
saves money + makes fish bolder, very nice


@ all: anyone got experience with a mixed caribe/redbelly shoal? would look pretty cool if they swarmed together
i saw a vid on youtube with some nats and an elong swarming together, so i guess it SHOULD work with nats/caribes, b/c these are more closely related than nats/elong, but you never know with piranhas, right?
 

Diogenes

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2008
2,407
21
68
Birmingham, AL
austrian_predator;2645246; said:
ok i see, but the quarantine question still stands b/c i might get some more fish later on ;)
actually i planned to do it exactly like you recommend, cycle with some mollies, add some more (and maybe some neons/corys), and then the piranhas
great to see that i'm not the first with this idea :)

@ pbucch: that's great, would be awesome if it works with chichlid pellets
saves money + makes fish bolder, very nice


@ all: anyone got experience with a mixed caribe/redbelly shoal? would look pretty cool if they swarmed together
i saw a vid on youtube with some nats and an elong swarming together, so i guess it SHOULD work with nats/caribes, b/c these are more closely related than nats/elong, but you never know with piranhas, right?
in a tank with dividers the water is shared. Any diseases that you might want to quarantine will be in the water. You need a separate tank for that.
 

austrian_predator

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2009
71
0
0
Austria
Diogenes;2647884; said:
in a tank with dividers the water is shared. Any diseases that you might want to quarantine will be in the water. You need a separate tank for that.
yes, i'm aware of that
i was just asking if there's any special quarantine tanks but apparently you can use any sterile tank, right?
 

tlindsey

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
23,258
24,119
1,660
Ohio
Well, I am certainly no expert. However, I have done a whole grip of research into all sorts of fish since I started keeping tanks. I currently only have one fish and that an S. marginatus. He's pretty rad. Here's what I know about RBPs.

Okay so most people agree that the bare minimum to keep one RBP is about a 40 breeder (36x18x12? i believe). That's because RBP's grow to 12+ inches if your lucky. Now all pygo's are shoaling fish, so go ahead and plan to have the minimum of 4 fish (the more the better.) Each RBP needs 20g of water by itself. So a 120 could comfortably hold 5-6 piranha. 6 would be a good sized shoal but it would be maxed out. They grow pretty fast and they are nasty eaters. Plan on over filtering the tank. You need something that can turn the entire volume of the tank over several (like 4-5+ times an hour). Cannister filters are the most popular option for RBP tanks. I use a HOB filter for my tank but it's only got the one serra so I don't have the same kind of waste that some folks do.

Piranhas are very shy. Don't expect a kill committee ready to decimate feeders. You have to starve them to get them to attack like that. In fact most won't even eat while your in the room. Mine hides under a mangrovem root until the lights go off. At night he slays anything in the tank. I've tried keeping oscars, Jd's, convicts, and the like in my tank. I put them in, he swims around them, I wake up in the morning, and if there is a fish left at all, it's usually in pieces. At the very least he eats the fins off them. Piranahs are more scavenger and parasite than predator. If you want a predator, get a guapote or some SW fish or something because P
s just don't exhibit the kind of ferocity you would expect. In fact, they're really kind of boring. The only reason I have one is because I have never been able to legally own one prior to moving to where I currently live. If I ever wanted to keep one, now is the time.

They are scared of light, even actinic light. Even with floating plants, mine only comes out at night.

Just some info. Have you heard of OPEFE? google it or click here. It's THE spot.

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/piranha038/

good luck and happy fish keeping.

PAX,
-C


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