# Red Bellied Piranha Care



## strictly_scales

The Red Bellied Piranha (_Pygocentrus natteri_) is a Characin fish that must have the most undeserved reputation in history.










Juveniles are a pale silver, with a bright red belly, and large, prominant dark spots on the body. Individuals under good light will "glint" as they move. As the Piranha mature, the body colour darkens and the spotting fades. The red belly diminshes and darkens. When in breeding mode, the overall colour darkens further, and the red belly disappears, turning the fish almost black. The pair then excavate a depression in the substrate and guard it. Sadly, mine have never spawned, but go through the motions of pairing every year.

It is during breeding mode that Piranha are at their most dangerous, and this time is when they tend to start mauling eachother. Piranha have very effective immune systems, and are robust fish, and it's not uncommon for fin and body wounds to heal rapidly over a period of days with no treatment, leaving no visible scarring.

Piranha need to be kept in a group, but are notorious for "culling the herd". If buying juveniles, a group of 8 will become 7 or 5, so plan for this in advance as it can be difficult to add more Piranha to an existing group. The larger the group, the more behaviour can be observed as the Piranha get bolder in larger numbers.

Piranha require a great deal of space, security and filtration- they are messy fish, and can grow to 10"+, although tend to remain smaller in captivity. I house a group of 5 in a 300 litre tank. I use 2 external filters (one biological, the other chemical), and a powerful internal cannister filter. 

Piranha require a water temperature of 24-28 degrees Celsius. I use a Rena Smartheater because of the sturdiness of the heater- glass heaters are too fragile to really be used with Piranha.










Feeding: Piranha requitre a varied diet, high in protein. Examples include prawn, crabsticks, fish, mouse and rat pups, scallops and heart. I usually have a look in the supermarkets to see what has been reduced in either the meat or fish aisle, and keep a bag of frozen prawns in the Freezer.

I feed infrequently, no more than twice a week. I offer 6-8 food items over a 2 minute period to ensure all Piranha can feed.

Piranha behaviour:

I've had these Piranha for 2.5 years now- all 5 were rescues, in 2 groups, 3 adults and 2 sub-adults, one with a damaged eye.

It took 18 months to get the fish to the stage where I could stand and watch them, without them spooking and hiding. These fish are very nervous, and generally will dart for cover when seen. Now, one of the Juveniles will feed from tongs for me, but it is the only one.

Piranha's have a pack based social behaviour- a small captive group will be dominated by the larger fish. Smaller fish or weaker ones are pushed to the perimeter of the group, with the weakest at the front. This particular fish I term the "scout"- it is the first fish that would encounter food, it is also the first fish that would encounter a predator. 

The largest fish in the shoal feed last. These are also the breeding fish. If a large fish suffers an injury that debilitates it in some way (I had a large individual who damaged an eye when spooked), that fish will lose its position in the shoal.

It is possible to keep Piranha with other fish species- mine are housed with Gold Tetra, a large Plec and a few Khuli Loaches. There is also a population of Amano Shrimp in the tank. However, bear in mind that any other species you may want to add will be "at risk".

Piranha are a straightforward species to keep in a large tank, but will not satisfy the media portrait they are given- if you want ferocious fish, look towards Cichlids.


----------



## cnella

very informative and some fantastic pics. nice one!


----------



## hippyhaplos

Nice

I had 5 red bellies and totally agree... They were far more scared of me than I was of them

I never thought of mixing them with other fish... and as the pics show when done properly it looks amazing


----------



## BenSheppard

*Piranha care*

I am a little late to the party I know! But I just wanted to add my thoughts!

Firstly I want to say to the OP, great info found out, however I really would recommend keeping your piranhas with any other fish that those you have listed, and people the whole "You can keep piranhas with oscars" sadly has a higher failure rate, I tried it, 4 red bellies to 1 tiger oscar, the oscar had a bite out of it one of the following mornings (yes I managed to save the oscar who is now fully finned and is growing nicely in his own tank with a few oscar friends and a catfish).

Secondly on the what to feed them subject, I don't think there is a set ruling for this, sites will tell you things, but use these listings as guides I would suggest, for example my piranhas will only eat seafood (cockles, mussels, lancefish, squid and prawns, things of that nature) they completely ignore meat or pellets.

But yea, nice pictures mine are over at this location!

Regards,

Ben.


----------



## Outback Breeders

I would love to get a group of red belly piranhas that would be awesom!!!!!!!, but im to busy on my reef tank to put together a piranha tank lol


----------



## caribe

I have my shoal of 6 super reds that are easy to keep.

800 litre tank with an FX6 and a generic external ebay filter. 2 x heaters, sand, lots of logs and plants and 30% weekly change, dimmed lights .... done.

Mine are funny for feeding, I have taken to threading some string with food and putting it in the filter flow, they eventually feed from this.

I think people forget just how shy they really are.


----------



## Far2lively

caribe said:


> I have my shoal of 6 super reds that are easy to keep.
> 
> 800 litre tank with an FX6 and a generic external ebay filter. 2 x heaters, sand, lots of logs and plants and 30% weekly change, dimmed lights .... done.
> 
> Mine are funny for feeding, I have taken to threading some string with food and putting it in the filter flow, they eventually feed from this.
> 
> I think people forget just how shy they really are.


Good to see people keeping them in the big tanks they require , they are an extremely shy fish I had 5 in a 300 litre heavily planted tank, amazing fish to observe


----------



## Jamesfredette

Beautiful Juveniles you have out there..both of them looked great..and yeah nice info on keeping Piranhas..thanks for sharing.


----------

