Common Names: Geryi Piranha and Violet Line Piranha

Scientific Name: Serrasalmus geryi

Family: Characidae

Maximum Size: Up to 11 inches, captive specimens rarely exceed 8.5 inches.

Origins: Select rivers in Brazil.

Care: Requires at least a 90 US gallon aquarium. Soft water with a pH between 6-7 is preferred. Serrasalmus geryi thrives in waters with a pH near 6.5. The tempature needs to be stable between 75-85. Heavy filtration is needed as are frequent water changes. These piranha like fast flowing waters but need a few dead spots for resting. They like subdued lighting and heavily planted aquariums. Lightly peat stained water seems to be appreciated, though "clear" water is perfectly acceptable. Large oxygen amounts seem to be more essential to geryis than any other piranha species. Due to its aggression, Serrasalmus geryi must be kept with no other tankmates. The only exception to this rule is geryis can be kept with other geryis of similar size in a very large aquarium. If you choose to keep them with other geryis make sure there is at least 3 geryis in total, preferably more. There really is no rule of thumb on how many gallons to provide per geryi. You just have to go by their own individual personality. I keep 3 geryis in a 140 US gallon aqaurium and I have yet to see any problems, but, most other hobbyists arent so lucky in a tank this "small".

Feeding: As like all Piranhas, Geryis are hearty eaters. Geryis seem to be more accepting of different foods than most piranhas. Their diet is similar to the red belly piranhas. At least half their diet should be fish. Live fish are preferred but frozen silversides or other frozen fish are readily accepted. Be sure that if live fish are being used that they must be quarantined for at least 2 weeks and look healthy and disease free before being offered as food. Supplement with other meaty foods like squid, earthworms, bloodworms, shrimp, and other similar food items. Not being picky eaters, they will readily accept carnivorus pellet/sticks. Squid seem to be their favorite in my experience.

Breeding: Breeding has not been successfully completed in captivity
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Comments: Geryi piranhas are beautiful fish but they are hard to come by and are very expensive. I paid $750 for a trio and that was a good deal. They are quite rare so even special orders from an LFS may not be possible. These fish are often confused or mislabeled as Serrasalmus compressus under the name "Bolivian Geryi". Geryis do not come from Bolivia. All geryis come exclusively from Brazil. These are my personal favorite fish and they make wonderful pets as long as they dont bite you which is unlikely. Geryi's in most peoples opinions are the by far most aggressive piranha species.



This post has been edited by Lateral Line: May 30 2006, 03:11 PM

To distinguish Serraslmus geryi from Serraslmus Compressus look for a purple colored line starting at the head. This picture supplied by fishbase.org clearly shows the infamous stripe. This stripe is a dead give away, if the piranha in the LFS does not have this stripe it is not Serraslmus geryi. So Buyers Beware! You dont want to pay $250 for a "Geryi" when in fact you are getting a $80 Compressus!


This post has been edited by AMS: May 10 2006, 07:57 PM