Piranhas In My Biology Class

[Austin_09]

Okay, so we started school last tuesday. I walk into my biology class and hey look at that! a fish tank! lol. So, of course i go up and look at it and there are two big red bellied piranhas in it. They look good... But they are never active.. One just sits in its cave and another sits under a big peice of bog wood.. The tank honestly doesn't look that nice.. Just the one cave and a peice of bog wood... The lights are always turned off so I cant tell if the water is really clean or not. And the gravel is a bright blue. Also the water is like 6 inches below the top. I'm not sure why my teacher keeps it like that but oh well.. Oh, and also it is a 55 gallon tank. Is that big enough for piranhas? Also, I was wondering why they never do anything. Even the teacher says he never sees the fish come out. Is that normal?

 

[puddle_inc]

hmmm, sometimes it helps to have more then 2 fish in one tank. i don't know much about piranahs, but try telling your teacher to feed them live food more often, and please don't let him use cute goldfish

 

[Austin_09]

lol. yeah.. he already asked the class if it would bother them if he fed them goldfish... >.> i didn't want to look stupid and say anything... lol.... but really.. I would rather if he didn't.

 

[Loko17]

haha I like watching goldfish getting ripped to shreds by a piranha. Just kidding I think its pretty cruel.

 

[AMS]

Piranhas are characins, not oddballs. See my piranha central in my signature. The piranhas are probably not active because in a high traffic area such as a class room, they become skittish. There are other factors such as lighting, territory, shoal size, etc. But no, a 55 gallon tank is not large enough, a 75 gallon tank is minimum. He should have at least 4 in a school for them to feel comfortable, again probably why they are not active and skittish.

They are truely great, interesting fish, espically during feeding time Its unfortunate they they fall into the hands of people like this

 

[Austin_09]

: o if you were serious i would of had to smack you! poor goldies... :'(

 

[Austin_09]

AMS, Yeah it is sad when people like this keep fish. But, I don't really think it was his fault. This is his first year teaching here.. well.. his first year teaching but thats besides the point. The fish were already there when he got here.. So there wasn't anything he could really do about that.

 

[Loko17]

You should advise him to get a bigger school and tank.

 

[jayjay]

Also don't feed them goldfish, not as they are 'cute' or anything, they are just bad fish to use as feeders. Look at the pinned live food topic.

 

[GuppyDude]

Gold fish are like the pigeons of fish keeping, no telling what they are carrying. Id suggest silver sides for piranah anyway, their cheap, and no one has to see small critters get ripped to shreads.

 

[nmonks]

Sadly, I've seen a lot of piranha in 55 gal. or less, aquaria in universities as well. My overall impression is that scientists are often, but not always, indifferent-to-poor aquarists. Even ones who study fish. The average moderator here probably knows more about keeping a fish happy and alive than a whole gaggle of leading ichthyologists. There are exceptions though, and I've worked with ichthylogists who are truly amazing aquarists as well, breeding or keeping stuff considered impossible.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[blackfinshark_3]

actually she could fit in 3 rbp's in a 55g.

but with just a cave and some bogwood she might wanna add some other stuff

 

[Captain Retardo]

Hey! It's another person from Minnesota!!!

Back in 6th or 7th grade one of the teachers had 1 Piranha in a freaking 10 gallon tank! My school has done other really bad things to fish before, I wont type it again, but I'll post a link to it if you want to know...

 

[AMS]

actually she could fit in 3 rbp's in a 55g.

but with just a cave and some bogwood she might wanna add some other stuff

Maybe juvenile specimens, but adults red bellies are not at all suited for a 55 gallon tank. They need more width than the 12 inches of the 55 gallon tank can supply. It doesnt matter if there is minimal decor they will still lack swimming space and more importantly territory space. 75 gallons is minimum, quite simply 55 gallons is too small for adults or even sub-adults.

 

[tetras4me]

holy crap. the tanks too small to house two piranahs. pirranahs will be kept in a tank for a good year liveing together peacefully then one day the head and gills of one of them can be found floting at the top of the tank. its a really bad idea to keep piranahs together in a tank that size.....