Red-Bellied Pirahnas

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
P

PirahnaKeeper4

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 9, 2010
7
0
0
Central Minnesota
Hello all,

Im new to MFK and to having fish as a pet in general. I just recently got 4 red-bellied pirahnas and wanted to post an open discussion if anyone had any tips for caring for these fish or just stories of their own RBs. Id greatly appreciate responses!!
 
I got them 3 days ago, they are just babies now about 1 inch long a peice. I have all 4 in a 30 gallon tank with just general tank ornaments. So far they are eating great and are very active. Couldnt be happier at this point.
 
HELLO Welcome to MFK.

As for some tips.


Don't feed them goldfish, horrible food choice goldfish contain high levels of an enzyme(Thiaminase) that can stunt piranha growth.

A good food choice for this size is frozen/thawed blood worms and eventualy you can start giving them thawed fish fillets and small pellets
(read the piranha nutrition sticky at the top of this forum for more info)

Red bellied piranhas can grow to atleast 12" (reports of 13-14 " are not rare but not overly common either) your 4 will eventualy require (when full grown) atleast a 75 gallon tank to house them comfortably. 75 gallon tanks are good because they are the smallest size that has an 18" width which will allow your piranhas to turn around fairly comfortably even when full grown (a 12" fish turning around in a 12" tank is not a pretty sight the poor things usualy bump into the glass)

75 gallon tanks are really the smallest size you can go for with piranhas because of the thinner footprint on other sizes.

As for my piranhas i currently house 6x 7" red bellied piranhas (RBP's) in a 150 gallon tank that share their humble abode with a 8" pleco and 2 adult and 3 baby convict cichlids. (Tankmates usualy are not a good idea and the case in point is the fact that my piranhas have literally removed the whole tail of one of the convicts to the point where it definately will not grow back)

It's really enjoyable to just watch the 6 of them swim around their tank becuase they have so much room to swim around. Feeding time is always enjoyable too ;).
 
Yeah once I found out how big they grow I realized a bigger tank would be neccesary along the way. Do you know how long it would take for them to grow to around the 8-10 inch mark when i would need to get a bigger tank. Currently in college and living in an apt so honestly a 30 gallon tank is pretty much all I have room for at the moment haha. Im just hoping i can get a year or 2 out of my 30 gallon tank before my babies need an upgrade.
 
Welcome, if well taken care of they can grow an inch a month, so you are looking at 6 to 8 months until they hit 7-8". after that the growth slows down a lot.
if 75 gallon is too big for you to have now and you are looking to get a year or two out of a tank then look into getting a 40 or 50 gallon breeder tank. they are only 36" long (a bit on the short side) but it's 18" wide so the fish can turn around more comfortably in there. throw in a power head to make up for the lack of length.
take a look at this sticky, it has great info on what to feed them.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306686
at the current size they are now, feed them bloodworms and brine shrimp would be good, once they get a little bigger you can start trying to feed them fish fillet and other food listed in the thread mentioned above. just cut the food to proper size so you don't waste large amount of food over each feeding.
 
Yeah, do start looking for a larger tank. You won't want them in that 30 gallon tank 6 months from now. You'll most likely start to lose some because of territorial battles if you don't upgrade to a bigger tank fast enough.
 
I read though if you raise them together and keep them properly fed that lowers aggression towarda each other and one is less likely to want to dominate over the others.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom