red belly piranha help
- Thread starter spoondc2
- Start date
Yes, you have to dechlorinate the water before putting the fish in. However, if you want the fish to actually live you will need to cycle the tank. If you do that with the fish, you are looking at large water changes (as much as 50%) DAILY. You need test kits for ammonia and nitrite at the very least, they need to be kept at or very close to 0 or the fish can DIE!!! Check out the cycling stickys in the newbie forum like was suggested to you in your other thread
I_GO_PYGO said:
I like your user name
A 30g is too small for a RB. Minimum is around 50g seeing as they can easily reach 10".
Im no expert, but the RBP will get at least 12" and needs a tank that is longer front to back if you want it to be able to turn arround. 75g mabey?
Edit--Whoop! sub beat me to it. He has pirhanna, so Id go with his advice over mine, but i still think 12" front to back will be pushing it.
Edit--Whoop! sub beat me to it. He has pirhanna, so Id go with his advice over mine, but i still think 12" front to back will be pushing it.
10" is the minimum growth of a healthy RB. Most likely size it can reach reach 12" which is somewhat common and usually the max for home aquarias is 14". A 55g would be fine for one RB but the beauty of RBs is that they can school with other RBs and even other Pygos, so I suggest getting more RB's (totaling 3 or more) into a bigger tank (75g approx for 3, but the bigger the better) or giving up the RB and getting an irritan or altuvei into a 55g if your heart is set on piranhas.
I_GO_PYGO said:
While I'm far from an expert, I had 2 red belly piranhas for about 5 years when I was much younger and more irresponsible. I was terrible with tank maintenance and I never had problems with them until I messed up real bad and accidentally forgot to turn the filter back on.. which I rinsed in tap water on an already very dirty tank. Looking back, I'm sure the ammonia killed them.
I started them in a 10, but quickly moved them to a 30, where they grew to around 10". I had to keep books and stuff on the top of the tank, because they were quite powerful fish, and scared me with their ability to jump out. One managed to get out of the tank once, but was alright. They are very hearty fish from what I saw, and not too difficult to keep. They do spook easily though, and are good fish to have in a bedroom or basement where there isn't too much activity. Make sure you build him a cave or something for privacy. They like their privacy.
I think you can tell the sex from their facial profile. IIRC correctly the females have a pointier head, while the mailes are more rounded and blunt.
They don't usually like to have lots of spectators when eating. With this being said, it doesn't mean you can't watch them tear up some feeder fish or whatever you throw in there. They're just sorta shy unlike oscars and such.
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