thinking of buying 2 piranha's

**kylebooth** · 04-15-2009, 04:33 AM

Hey, iam looking into getting two red belly piranhas, the set up i have for them is,

55 Gallon aquarium, 48 inches long, 13 inches wide, 21 inches high
200 Watt heater,
Aqueon power filter 55

is this setup okay? can someone give me some more information about these fish? do they just eat live food? how often would you feed 2 piranahs? how often do you do water changes? and can any kind of pleco live with them?

**lobsternoob** · 04-15-2009, 05:59 AM

when i kept red bellies i had a bit bigger tank, and a bigger school. Piranhas are schooling fish, and they tend to be a bit shy IME. I would do a bit more filtration wise, but I overfilter all my tanks by at least twice.Two piranhas isn't going to be too heavy of a bioload, but it is still up there when they grow. They don't need to eat live foods all the time, they can and will eat bigger flake and pellets, but most people keep piranhas to watch them destroy feeders. They won't eat feeders whole like an oscar usually, they rip them apart, and I would not give them many feeder goldies.

I would feed them every 2 days or so and do a mixture of flake, feeders, and believe it or not they will eat some veggies! Feeding time still gets crazy!

As for plecos with piranhas, I'd be careful, IME red bellies tend to fin nip and test other fish a lot to see if they can take em out, I've seen a couple skeletonized Plecos, and then I had one that lived with my piranhas for 3 years.
They aren't the fish they are made out to be, but from what I've seen they are territorial and nasty pack hunters, cool fish, but i kept my pack that got down to 5 in a 125 gallon, they will be much more peaceful with adequate space.

and as for WC's do them like any other tank, weekly, or even more often if possible, especially with predatory fish, they leave a lot of waste.

I'm not claiming to be an expert, as usual I'm a novice, that's just my take on keeping piranhas.

**kylebooth** · 04-15-2009, 06:48 AM

thanks alot for the help.

**Northernguy** · 04-15-2009, 01:13 PM

Piranhas are schooling fish! There is a little fish called exodons that can live with them.I beleive they are also called vampire tetras!
Here is some info for you!
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/predatory/piranha.php
http://http://www.aquaticcommunity.c...ry/pirhana.php

**Lady Hobbs** · 04-15-2009, 03:18 PM

Keep thinking about it.............and then get something different.

:)

**rageybug** · 04-15-2009, 04:00 PM

I would recommend 3 or more piranhas, but the problem is, your tank will be way too small for three adults, 2 is even going to be a tight fit. These fish can really motor and will need lots of space.

Filtration looks like a bit of a problem here too. You will need to do weekly water changes in this tank with that filter.

Everyone will tell you a 100 different things to feed a RB piranha but for me, all I could get them to eat was live food. This means lots of waste in the tank and a very smelly tank if you do not keep up with the water changes.

As for how often to feed, I would buy a dozen minnows from my local bait shop and acclimate them like any other fish. I would put them into the tank and the piranha would eat when they were hungry. It was VERY rare, but occasionaly the piranha would kill all the minnows within an hour of putting them in so you may want to keep a small feeder tank if you go this route.

As you will learn, not every member here agrees with piranhas or other "live eaters" and will tell you to think about something else. That is an argument you can make, as I'll get in trouble again! I doubt those anti-piranha people have a tank of "rescued" feeder goldfish in their living rooms.

**kylebooth** · 04-15-2009, 05:11 PM

thanks alot people very helpfull information:)

**kylebooth** · 04-15-2009, 05:16 PM

Sorry im a fish noob, trying to get into the hobby these forums have been very helpful so far:) what about using 2 filters? is that a good idea?

**Northernguy** · 04-15-2009, 06:21 PM

Most of us do! You can never have too much filtration,just too much current!

**kaimarkhirst** · 04-15-2009, 06:23 PM

hi mate,

Im looking to eventually set up a piranha species tank and , this is the setup, conditioning and habits ill be using. This is after 6 months of studying, research and good quality reading into these fish as youve got to remember, these are really a specialist fish, adn should be treat so.

Tank.

At least a 100g plus tank, 2 filters giving filtration at least twice the capacity of the tank (Personally, id set these up to be 3 stage filters). Good quality bogwood, hardy quality plants. Personal choice would be to have all the tank decoration to fairly accurately emulate their habitat, dont ahve to, butthats just how I set up al lmy tanks so far. 2 heaters of excellent quality.

Water.

Soft to neutral, PH to be 6.8 to 7.0 max. Temp is the usual for tropics, 24 to 27. The usual setup for slightly sensetive fish such as discus..

Feeding.

Personally, I prefer species feeding for all species tanks, but thats just me... Most of the info on the web recommends, dried food, 2 days on 2 days off, and occasionally meat products. Dont let them get obese. Watch your hands when they are hungry.

Behavour.

Im sure youve researched this, but here it is anyways.

schooling fish, at least 5-7 is a good number, fairly intelligent fish indeed, so be careful. you can get most fo thsi stuff from the web.

Generally, keeping fish like this is like keeping discus, Exotic Cichlids or any other sensitive tropical fish... If your inexperienced or not sure, dont bother. Ive researched red bellys, am semi experienced in tropical fish, and keep a number pf established species tanks, and im still looking into the prospect of these baby's, so you might want to look at something else first with a view to keeping RB's.

If your really set on these bad boys. Them take your time, research and have patience!!!

Good luck...

Kai