Too Many Piranhas?

[NiceGaur]

Hey! Im new here and I have an important question to ask.
Im getting very young red belly piranhas in August.
The guy who is selling them to me told me that i should get as much as 10 piranhas for a 300 litre tank but I think this is way too much!
I told him that and he told me that its better to have too many because some will probably die and I can never put more fish in the tank ever again.
I still think that 8-10 adults is too much for a 300 litre tank. What do you guys think?

 

[Llegmore]

Honestly, it's quite a limited tank size. I'd advise a minimum of 25 gallons per adult fish but you need to keep at least three in a shoal. Therefore, I'd say aim for a maximum 4 adults.

HOWEVER

For juveniles (less than about 3 inches) you want 10 to 15 gallons a fish. So you could keep 5 or 6 youngsters. If you did this, I wouldn't expect all fish to live out their life expectancy.

It's really up to you. Either way I'd say a maximum of 6 piranhas. No way 8-10.

P.S I'm no expert. This is mostly opinion I apologize in advance for any corrections my advice requires.

 

[dbanner]

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[dbanner]

I had 5 in my 260 litre for almost a year. 1 died of an unknown cause and then the dominant one killed and ate the remaining 3. Leaving me with one of the meanest piranhas I'd come across. He had a real bad attitude. He used to get on fine with the others but when he got to around the 6 inch mark he just went nuts and would not tolerate anything that moved in HIS tank.I used to have no trouble doing a weekly (or even 2 weekly) sand vac but after he went nuts I couldn't put my hand in the tank. He kept going for my hands. So I had to attach my syphon to a long metal bar so I didn't have to put my hands in the tank.

I would say that 5 would be the maximum for a 300 litre. They are VERY messy fish so extra filtration is needed. Around 6-8 times your tank volume in hourly turnover. So around 2000-2500 lph turnover. Please remember that as an example if you were to have 2 tetratec ex1200's as I have the real life turnover goes from 1200 lph per filter to around 940lph per filter. Giving you 1880 combined.

Low lighting is required as they are very shy and skittish fish that will scare easily when you put the lights on if they are too bright. If so then floating plants will be a good idea

Many people may tell you that piranhas are boring and have no personality which to be honest is true in most cases but I absolutely loved mine and may even get some more for my 450 litre once I get my 8 foot 800 litre.

When they are young they will eat flake but then as they get older they need bigger things. I used to feed mine frozen and live bloodworm, frozen shrimp, krill, earthworms and frozen mice.

All I will say is if you want a fish that will always roam around the tank and entertain you then piranhas are not for you. Also a lot of people only buy piranhas because of their rep as killers. This isnt the case with them though. In fact they will spent most of their time in one place or hid away and then strike at feeding time. The "thrill" of seeing them attack soon dies down. You really have to love piranhas to understand them and enjoy them

 

[NiceGaur]

Thanks guys. I knew it was wayyyy too much!
Im going to reduce my order to 6-7 just in case one or two die from unknown causes. If they all live I will get another tank/s and keep 1 fish in each. So basicly im going to have 5 red bellys in the 300 litre tank.
Sorry to hear about what happened to you dbanner. I also see that you say that many people buy them for the "killer" tag they have. That is not the case with me. I just really like this certain species and I already know they are skittish and need less light and so on...
So yeah. I will aim for 5 adults in the 300 litre

 

[dbanner]

5 will be ok IMO. You may need to upgrade to a bigger tank at some point though. 500 litres would be a good size (5ft long x 2ft wide x 2ft high). They do get big, around 10-12 inches although it will take a few years for them to reach that size. They tend to grow up to an inch per month for the first 4-5 months and then their growth slows dramatically.

A lot of people think they will attack your hand as soon as it hits the water but this is completely wrong. They will just get scared and swim away. Maybe if you were to starve them for around 7-10 days then it may be a different story.. Or if you happen to have a crazy piranha like I had lol

Piranhas can sense fear. They will only attack if what ever it is in the water is injured and/or struggling. Put a fish bigger and meaner than them in the tank and try are likely to be put
to shame. Although its never advisable to do so for the safety of the fish.

Good luck mate and don't forget to put up some pics

These were mine when they were still very young and in a juwel vision 180 before getting moved to the 260 litre. I'd already lost one at this point to an unknown cause. These pics were taken around 3 months before the dominant one went nuts.