# How do you care for red belly piranha?



## [email protected] (Apr 12, 2011)

can anyone give me a good care sheet on these guys im thinking about getting a single 2 inch fish and starting her of in a 80 litre tank any info please


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## biggie01 (Feb 23, 2012)

danward1990 said:


> can anyone give me a good care sheet on these guys im thinking about getting a single 2 inch fish and starting her of in a 80 litre tank any info please


have a look on google for a care sheet there is a few but dont just read one care sheet read two or three as some lie lol.. ive had a red bellied piranha for about 3-4 years now he was like 2 inch when i got him he alot bigger now lol there good too keep i feed mine pinkys and blood worm all the time as thats only thing he will eat


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## Paul112 (Apr 6, 2007)

I used to keep RBPs, although they're nothing like the hype surrounding them. They are _extremely_ nervous fish (I had one jump out of the tank when the lid was off, just because I walked into the room). 

They are shoaling fish, and will do much better in groups of 5 or more, although they do pick on each other on occasion. If you have seen a lone fish in a pet store, then you could buy it and keep it alone, as adding more fish later usually isn't succesful.

Give them plenty of cover, live/fake plants and driftwood, and put aquarium background (or black paper if you're thrifty like me) on the back and sides of the tank to help it feel secure.

I'd suggest earthworms and frozen prawns/mussels/fish for the diet. Bloodworm is good, but they are messy eaters and a lot of it may go to waste. 

Best,
Paul


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## [email protected] (Apr 12, 2011)

im getting one of two at my local pet shop its the smaller of the two has no nips but the bigger one is far more aggressive but has many nips i think i'm doing it a favour as the bigger one is a bully


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## biggie01 (Feb 23, 2012)

yeah forgot to say they are nervous but mine isnt as bad as it used to be now. before mine wouldnt eat if you was in same room as it lol but now i drop 2 pinkys in and he swims up to top of tank and grabs them im thinking on moving on to small mice now as he dont even chew the pinkys he swallows 2 whole a day lol but its best to feed them things that they can eat easy as i fed mine a small chicken and it made a mess of tank and stunk lol just get some bog wood few plants filter and a heater and uv light in your tank and it will be happy mines been on is own 3-4 years now and is fine.. if you have 4-5 piranhas if you dont feed them enough they will start fighting each other until you end up with half a piranha dead in bottom of tank


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## Riff (Nov 12, 2009)

danward1990 said:


> can anyone give me a good care sheet on these guys im thinking about getting a single 2 inch fish and starting her of in a 80 litre tank any info please


Take a look at Piranha Central, its a great forum with very experienced Piranha keepers : victory: and all the info you could possibly need.


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## [email protected] (Apr 12, 2011)

biggie01 said:


> yeah forgot to say they are nervous but mine isnt as bad as it used to be now. before mine wouldnt eat if you was in same room as it lol but now i drop 2 pinkys in and he swims up to top of tank and grabs them im thinking on moving on to small mice now as he dont even chew the pinkys he swallows 2 whole a day lol but its best to feed them things that they can eat easy as i fed mine a small chicken and it made a mess of tank and stunk lol just get some bog wood few plants filter and a heater and uv light in your tank and it will be happy mines been on is own 3-4 years now and is fine.. if you have 4-5 piranhas if you dont feed them enough they will start fighting each other until you end up with half a piranha dead in bottom of tank


cheers bud i've read a few care sheets that say they are hard to keep then other's say there easy to keep lol it also says use two filters am i suppost to put a under gravel filter and a internal filter like a fluval ?


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## biggie01 (Feb 23, 2012)

ohh and forgot to say it is good too feed them live food like fish and soo on but dont do it all the time as one of my friends only fed is piranha live goldfish and after abit it wouldnt eat nothing else.. mines abit funny with food he only eats pinkys and small mice and blood worm cubes ive tried him on all sorts of things but he dont eat them soo i just stick too pinkys and blood worm cubes and he is growing bigger each time i look at him lol and he is fine that my prianha bellow  











i took is fake plants out as he was ripping them up he kept grabbing them and braking them up and i didnt want him too swallow any lol soo going to get some better plants soon.. and instead of the sand i have red stones now as i dont like sand when they swim around tank the sand flicks up everywhere


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## biggie01 (Feb 23, 2012)

danward1990 said:


> cheers bud i've read a few care sheets that say they are hard to keep then other's say there easy to keep lol it also says use two filters am i suppost to put a under gravel filter and a internal filter like a fluval ?


yeah some care sheets talk crap lol ive only ever used 1 filter for my piranha and is tank is always clean only thing i get is bits of algie growing on the glass but thats because of having the uv light on but its not hard too clean i just put my hand in tank and whipe it off.. and i think there easy too keep aslong as you have water right temp and a filter too keep it clean there fine.. in wild piranha can swim in 1inch of water and go with out food for a few week soo there are pretty hard fish


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## Riff (Nov 12, 2009)

Dont feed live food, for red bellys there is no need, prawns, mussel and other white fish is all thats needed.
External filters are your best bet, internals are not the best especially with piranha.


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## biggie01 (Feb 23, 2012)

Riff said:


> Dont feed live food, for red bellys there is no need, prawns, mussel and other white fish is all thats needed.
> External filters are your best bet, internals are not the best especially with piranha.


ive always had a internel lol never had a problem


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## caribe (Mar 21, 2010)

Whats your water parameters and tank routine though?

They are very messy fish and internals struggle to keep up with the bio load.

How old is that RBP and what size tank is that?

Just you said earlier that its 3-4 years old, looks very small for a Piranha of that age....

I would have expected around the 10 - 12" mark and much more bulky.

Judging by the internal in with it, it looks about 6-7"


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## biggie01 (Feb 23, 2012)

caribe said:


> Whats your water parameters and tank routine though?
> 
> They are very messy fish and internals struggle to keep up with the bio load.
> 
> ...


i clean it out every month but every few days i go around the tank with a net to get all crap out that he as left and all its mess out.. but i do feed him pinkys and he usualy swallows them whole and i feed him blood worm cubes too and when they start to sink he swims up and swallows the cube whole too lol.. and the tank is 1.5ft x 1.5ft x 1.5ft ... yeah he does look small in the picture but that picture is about a year old too ill try take a better one as he is about 8-10inchs long and about 3-4 inches deep.. ive had him at least 3-4 years now got him as a baby lol and the setup is different to that now have stones on bottom instead of sand put a few plants in now ( i took them out last time as he was ripping them up but he is leaving them alone now lol ) and ive put him a slate cave in lol and a bigger better filter too


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## Riff (Nov 12, 2009)

biggie01 said:


> i clean it out every month but every few days i go around the tank with a net to get all crap out that he as left and all its mess out.. but i do feed him pinkys and he usualy swallows them whole and i feed him blood worm cubes too and when they start to sink he swims up and swallows the cube whole too lol.. and the tank is 1.5ft x 1.5ft x 1.5ft ... yeah he does look small in the picture but that picture is about a year old too ill try take a better one as he is about 8-10inchs long and about 3-4 inches deep.. ive had him at least 3-4 years now got him as a baby lol and the setup is different to that now have stones on bottom instead of sand put a few plants in now ( i took them out last time as he was ripping them up but he is leaving them alone now lol ) and ive put him a slate cave in lol and a bigger better filter too


You said that you hate seeing snakes in small tubs, but its ok to keep a fish or Piranha in this case, in a tank that is far from adequate :whistling2:

Please dont take this the wrong way, i like Piranha and reptiles and keep them the way they do best in my opinion.


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## biggie01 (Feb 23, 2012)

Riff said:


> You said that you hate seeing snakes in small tubs, but its ok to keep a fish or Piranha in this case, in a tank that is far from adequate :whistling2:
> 
> Please dont take this the wrong way, i like Piranha and reptiles and keep them the way they do best in my opinion.


i did have the piranha in a 3ft tank but it never came from under the bog wood only when you fed it then it went straight back under it never ever swims around tank soo i went and got that tank its in now and it actualy swims around the tank its in now too.. if i had 2 piranhas i would of kept them in the 3ft tank i think because its on its own it dont swim about or nothing but its been in that tank for about a year now and it seems alot happier in the smaller tank then it did in the 3ft tank to be honest.. and the tank is just over 1.5ft wide its 20inches wide so its nearly 2ft


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## Riff (Nov 12, 2009)

biggie01 said:


> i did have the piranha in a 3ft tank but it never came from under the bog wood only when you fed it then it went straight back under it never ever swims around tank soo i went and got that tank its in now and it actualy swims around the tank its in now too.. if i had 2 piranhas i would of kept them in the 3ft tank i think because its on its own it dont swim about or nothing but its been in that tank for about a year now and it seems alot happier in the smaller tank then it did in the 3ft tank to be honest.. and the tank is just over 1.5ft wide its 20inches wide so its nearly 2ft


Agree 100% with that. My piranha is in a 3ft tank, fish is only 6 inch at the moment and sits in 1 corner almost all day, thats just how it is with lots of solo pygo's, they prefer to be in a group.
I keep royals and have done the whole viv thing, but they are now in tubs (RUBS) and they are much better this way, feed and are more active, well they move sometimes lol.


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## biggie01 (Feb 23, 2012)

Riff said:


> Agree 100% with that. My piranha is in a 3ft tank, fish is only 6 inch at the moment and sits in 1 corner almost all day, thats just how it is with lots of solo pygo's, they prefer to be in a group.
> I keep royals and have done the whole viv thing, but they are now in tubs (RUBS) and they are much better this way, feed and are more active, well they move sometimes lol.


lol yeah the piranhas tank is just under 2ft soo its big enough for him and i just dont like the rubs


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## caribe (Mar 21, 2010)

2 foot for an adult piranha not too small. Your kidding me right?

I have 8" fish in an 800 litre tank and do 200 litre changes min a week. 

No wonder it's so small if it's been kept in a tiny tank!!!!


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## [email protected] (Apr 12, 2011)

what would you guys say is a decent size tank for a single adult RBP thanks


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## Graylord (Jul 17, 2007)

caribe said:


> Whats your water parameters and tank routine though?
> 
> They are very messy fish and internals struggle to keep up with the bio load.
> 
> ...


Most red bellies max out at 8 inches exc tail . I doubt you've ever seen one at a foot in a private aquarium.


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## Graylord (Jul 17, 2007)

danward1990 said:


> what would you guys say is a decent size tank for a single adult RBP thanks


I would think a 36 x15x15 would be ok for a single adult but bigger would be better . They are not very active so a single fish does not need a huge tank.

Also please don't get swept along on the live fish ,mammalian diet thing its not necessary ,most red bellied P's will take a good quality pellet mixed and matched with some frozen food.

I'd be inclined to use an external for filtration but bear in mind they don't appreciate being swilled round the tank washing machine style.


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## caribe (Mar 21, 2010)

Graylord said:


> Most red bellies max out at 8 inches exc tail . I doubt you've ever seen one at a foot in a private aquarium.


You doubt that I have seen one over 8" not in a public aquarium lol. Yeah I used to see 4 in my tank every day that were 10" in the body. 

You cannot for one minute looking at that picture say that the rpb in the pic is not stunted!!!

I have had alot of experience with all manner of P's especially caribe (hence the user name) and I'm sorry but if u think that a 36" tank for a single adult red belly is big enough then we will have to agree to disagree


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## caribe (Mar 21, 2010)

I personally think the more room the better, they aint that active TBH but I think a 48" tank is a better size for a single P.

Although if you wanted a single P I would go for a Rhom....

But 6 foot tank for one of them.


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## Graylord (Jul 17, 2007)

caribe said:


> You doubt that I have seen one over 8" not in a public aquarium lol. Yeah I used to see 4 in my tank every day that were 10" in the body.
> 
> You cannot for one minute looking at that picture say that the rpb in the pic is not stunted!!!
> 
> I have had alot of experience with all manner of P's especially caribe (hence the user name) and I'm sorry but if u think that a 36" tank for a single adult red belly is big enough then we will have to agree to disagree


If you read what i say without getting over excited you will see that what i said was i doubt you have seen one at a foot long.You don't include the tail when measuring fish.


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## Riff (Nov 12, 2009)

Ive not seen a 12" tank bred red, but have seen wild reds at that size.
I had a 14" Piraya last year, sadly sold it to go into a shoal, it got killed in 2 days, I have another 1 now but its only 6" at the moment.


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## [email protected] (Apr 12, 2011)

caribe said:


> I personally think the more room the better, they aint that active TBH but I think a 48" tank is a better size for a single P.
> 
> Although if you wanted a single P I would go for a Rhom....
> 
> But 6 foot tank for one of them.



i looked into getting a Rhom but no luck the only place i found them was in mansfield they are real prehistoric looking stunning though


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## [email protected] (Apr 12, 2011)

Graylord said:


> I would think a 36 x15x15 would be ok for a single adult but bigger would be better . They are not very active so a single fish does not need a huge tank.
> 
> Also please don't get swept along on the live fish ,mammalian diet thing its not necessary ,most red bellied P's will take a good quality pellet mixed and matched with some frozen food.
> 
> I'd be inclined to use an external for filtration but bear in mind they don't appreciate being swilled round the tank washing machine style.



what litre or gallon would that be? im going to feed prawns and blood worm to him is it ok to feed any kind of insects as i've read they eat them in the wild cheers


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## caribe (Mar 21, 2010)

Graylord said:


> If you read what i say without getting over excited you will see that what i said was i doubt you have seen one at a foot long.You don't include the tail when measuring fish.


I had someone bring in a few red bellies that were around the foot mark. I didn't take them as didn't have the space. 

Thanks for the tip on measuring. That's really helped me out no end. 

Just away to get a red tail cat for a bi orb.


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## [email protected] (Apr 12, 2011)

Riff said:


> Take a look at Piranha Central, its a great forum with very experienced Piranha keepers : victory: and all the info you could possibly need.



cheers buddy


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