I have a Red Belly Piranha in a 20 gallon tank with live plants and a shoal of feeder guppies. The guppies started out as 10 feeder guppies and 5 ended up hiding long enough to start reproducing. I had been feeding the piranha raw shrimp which it seems to love, but I noticed that the guppy population had exploded in the tank. I therefore stopped putting shrimp in the tank. It has been about 2 weeks and the guppy population has been reduced to about half of it's peek. However, I have not noticed any significant reduction in the population in recent days. Is it possible that I have inadvertantly created a good habitat for the piranha with a stable food supply?
Red Belly Piranha Question
- Thread starter mdwags
- Start date
no idea, but piranas like to be in groups.
i might be getting them when my tropical fish die out.
but im sure if theres lots of guppies an no other food, he wil eat them. i mean, its only twenty gallons, how are a million! (tehe) guppies going to hide
i might be getting them when my tropical fish die out.
but im sure if theres lots of guppies an no other food, he wil eat them. i mean, its only twenty gallons, how are a million! (tehe) guppies going to hide
cane76
Fish Aficionado
red bellies need to be in groups in big tanks with decent filtration
keeping one in a 20g is all wrong imo
keeping one in a 20g is all wrong imo
and i bet hes a lovely pet too, he just might be lonely, and then thats when 20gals will be a problem.
they grow about 12 inches (i did the math from a stocking calulator and a zoo site on red belly piranas, cuz i want them in the future) so 20 is fine for one full grown, its not like its a bala shark and needs to length to swim.
they grow about 12 inches (i did the math from a stocking calulator and a zoo site on red belly piranas, cuz i want them in the future) so 20 is fine for one full grown, its not like its a bala shark and needs to length to swim.
cane76
Fish Aficionado
imo if it stays in the 20g for life it will be stunted,skittish then die early 
is this a loving home
is this a loving home
RadaR
The things we do for our fish..
imo if it stays in the 20g for life it will be stunted,skittish then die early
is this a loving home
Agreed.
CAC
Formerly: Catfish Are Cool
How can you say that?
Thats isnt all that matters at all...What if 10 mins after he bought it some guy wanting another to go into his 100g with 4 other red bellies (which IMO is how shoaling, 10"+ fish should be kept) goes to the same shop and asks for one? Its not the right size tank, and its not with the right tankmates (i.e more of its own kind).
You are however doing something right, which is feeding fish, but you should be feeding (according to AMS' fish profile) half fish and half other (i/e earthworms, prawns etc).
pieman
Fishaholic
I'd love to see the face on AMS reading this =]
That is not very good info and completely wrong, imo.
Red Belly piranhas should be kept in a shoal of at least 3, as should almost all pygocentrus species, and in a minimum of 75g tank for 3 of them. If you just want to keep one, a 75g tank is still the minimum size, (or at least 16" width)
imo if it stays in the 20g for life it will be stunted,skittish then die early
is this a loving home
Exactly how I feel. IMO too many people don't do adequate research on the fish they intend to buy. I've been tempted more than once to make an impulse buy at the LFS, and it's hard not to when you see tanks and tanks of fish.
People really need to understand that their good intentions are going to end up causing a living creature to suffer needlessly.
imo if it stays in the 20g for life it will be stunted,skittish then die early
is this a loving home
Exactly how I feel. IMO too many people don't do adequate research on the fish they intend to buy. I've been tempted more than once to make an impulse buy at the LFS, and it's hard not to when you see tanks and tanks of fish.
People really need to understand that their good intentions are going to end up causing a living creature to suffer needlessly.
It's hard finding good specific info on piranhas online or even in stores. I can't tell you how many articles I've read online from "expert" people that are too general or completely out and out wrong. Someone looking for information and trying to learn about them beforehand will be misled 9 times out of 10.
The biggest and best clue that someone doesn't know what they're talking about when it comes to giving out piranha information, albeit with probably the best intentions, is when their article says "Piranhas such and such...." and generalizing every species into one. There are way too many species that are completely different for an article to be written like that and anyone who really does know a lot about piranhas would state which species they are talking about.
A lot of people with the best intentions and trying to learn whatever they can before they purchase may be getting bad information without knowing it, then they tell someone else and on and on. It's not bad people just bad information and piranhas, imo, are treated worse than almost all if not all other aquarium-kept fish.
Keeping a piranha in a 20g would be unheard of. But this person stated she did her search, which is what we're all supposed to do. They were just given horrible advice. Piranhas are as big as female oscars, a lot messier, need more filtration and swim more than an Oscar does. We wouldn't keep an oscar in a 20 tho? (well, none of us here would as I've heard stories about that happening also...) A 20g tank wouldn't even be big enough for the filters needed for a piranh or Oscar, which should be a minimum of 10x an hour.
fearce
Fish Crazy
So, IF one were to keep two piranhas, assume they will be grown in whats the minumum tank size they can be kept in. Also assuming good filteration.
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