casually considering piranha tank

[alabaster]

Hello all. I'm (obviously) casually considering a piranha setup. I don't currently have a tank big enough, but I will soon have that ability. My questions are aimed mainly at those who have kept piranhas, but anyone with any insight is welcome to contribute:

1. What is a good setup for piranhas? Tank size? Filtration? Dietary needs?

2. What are the different varieties of piranha (I understand there are two) and how big
does each variety get?

3. What are they like in the aquarium? Are they active?

4. Do they bite when you stick your hand in the tank to clean it? (I'm allowed one stupid question, right?)

5. Is it necessary to have a school, since they live in large schools in nature? Do they do better in schools? Is this even important?

Thanks for reading, and for your responses!

 

[ccg]

I have never owned any either, but have been considering it just like you have.

From what I have gatherd they are very shy and skittish fish. They will not bite at if you have your arm/hand in there cleaning.

 

[sylvia]

I have never kept piranhas and am only realy familiar with the red-bellied piranha (serrasalmus nattereri) so can only realy tell you just a bit about them but I may be of some help to you anyway hopefuly.

I think a good setup for piranhas would be something with plenty of swimming space - maybe some bits of bogwood for decoration. They get to 12" and are very much a schooling fish so you can imagine you'll need a pretty big tank. Probably a couple of hundred gallons if you realy want a good-sized school. And, yes, you should realy keep red-bellies in schools though make sure all the individuals you introduce are added at once and are the same size - prefferably also originaly from the same tank. That'll keep aggression down. You should realy get at least 6 as small groups can end up killing each other. Filtration has to be excellent as they are not only big time waste producers, they are also extremely messy eaters. I would think young piranhas should be fed on pretty much the same as most carnivorous aquarium fish - worms and shrimp etc. Later, they may require larger foods such as crickets or beefheart and I think they grow quite quickly. I personaly don't think feeding feeder fish is necessary or reccomended but they will deffinately eat them if you do choose to risk introducing disease. Maybe if you breed your own the culls can go to the piranhas but otherwise I would avoid feeders. I have no personal experience with them so I'm not realy shure what they are like behaviour-wise besides the fact that they can be aggressive when first settling in and establishing hierarchy etc. I doubt they'd try to bite your hand unless they manage to mistake it for food. I have also heard that, though they do swim around, they are generaly quite shy and deffinately don't act in the manner they are stereotypically portrayed as behaving in.

Another species of piranha I believe is the black piranha (I think) which is more aggressive and actualy should be kept as a solitary individual. That is what I vaguely remember anyway.

 

[Big Rob]

If you're interested in piranhas, I suggest you check out http/www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/

EDIT: Posting links isn't against the rules here is it?

 

[CFC]

A good pirahna set up will have lots of tall pieces of bogwood and floating plants (live or fake) to diffuse the light as they preffer a dimly lit tank, bright lighting will make your pirahna shy and nervous. Keep a minimum of 3 pirahna, one will be very shy and skittish, two will fight until one is dead. For a group of 3 red belly pirahnas a 75 gallon tank is best with a additional 20 gallons per fish for larger schools, the rule with pirahna is get the largest tank you can and stock with as many as it allows, the bigger the group the easier they are to keep. Filtration needs to be heavy duty as they produce huge ammounts of waste, a large canister filter and prefferably two or a wet/dry sump style filter is recomended.

 

[mellowserra]

I kept pirhanas for years, second the bogwood, shade, and massive filtration. We ended up with a full canopy of wisteria, which was pretty nice. The tannins released from the bogwood may also lower the pH of the water a little, which the pirhanas like, ours stayed stable even though our water was about 7.2.

There are some species of pirhana which are so agressive that they must be kept alone, schooling are the red-bellies and golds. The golds make for a gorgeous display, and they are captive bred as well.

If you have too many in a tank that is too small, you will know as they will cannibalize each other, starting with the weakest one. We may have been lucky in having just two [red bellies] that didn't fight a bit, they actually teamed up to corner food...

These two species of pirhaa are pretty "timid" of people, but if excited or frightened wil bite as defense. Be very, very, careful when handling them. As ours got bigger, I became wary of cleaning their tank knowing the kind of damage they could inflict. Alhough I don't think there was ever any thing to worry about, I still got a long handled algae mitt

Though it is narural to feed pirhanas feeders, they will also take (thawed) various types of fish, shrimp, and seafood. When smaller ours took frozen and freeze dried worms.

 

[alabaster]

Thanks for your replies! I've done lots of research and am still contemplating the idea of getting some piranhas.

 

[corbypete]

If you're interested in piranhas, I suggest you check out http/www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/

EDIT: Posting links isn't against the rules here is it?

second that, piranha fury is an ace site.

very skittish fish, red bellies are very scared of outside movement and tend to dart around if you make em jump. my daughter ran upto my tank and scared the crap out of jack, he lept right out of the tank!

i have red bellies, but if i was to get them agian Id go for a serra, something like an Irritan as they are more interactive from young, rip stuff to bits and get into all sorts of mischief.

the lone piranhas will more likely strike you in your tank, the red bellies run away scared, and dont bother with a single red belly unless you want a communal tank because he'll sit in the corner all day long, very boring.

as for aggression etc, you are more likely to get an aggresive one if its the serra variety.