Neville

Credits

The main body of the caresheet was prepared by Neville.
The caresheet was standardised and editted by Armadillo.
Other contributors are creditted next to the relevant text.

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We would welcome new contributions, thoughts and remarks to add to our caresheet. To do so, add a post to this thread and we will integrate it to the caresheet, with your name next to it.

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Introduction

Piranhas are very interesting fish, people say that they are very aggressive but they can be very loyal too; I have 7 of them and they follow me back and forth.

Feeding

Piranhas are carnivores and they eat a lot!

Don't feed them live food only; it can become quite expensive, try to feed them pellets and dry food mostly and feed them raw meat and shrimp occasionally.

Freeze the live food before feeding to kill germs.

Lighting

In nature they live in dirty water where lights can't reach that clearly so they are a little afraid of lights; so put enough hiding places and driftwoods (I found this info from fishlore member [Trpimp 147] and my piranhas are a little afraid of lights too.

Filtration

They get very messy during feeding time so u will need extra filtration and frequent tank maintenance.

Size

They grow up to 12" but our local versions grow up to only 3"!

The problem is that they can grow up to 14 inches if it is a red piranha [Wilhem Joshua Tan].

Temperature requirements

Temperature approx. 22-27 degree C.

Tank mates

Don't keep them with other species of fish; you can keep large plecos with baby piranhas.

Tank volume

It's better to keep them in a school of 4. They need at least a 30g tank but you can keep babies in a 10g.

Aggression to their human

Baby piranha will bite you...piranha are braver when they are younger. Not that I recommend anyone putting their hand in the tank. You have to get to know individual fish to see how aggressive each one is. We had a 12" female red belly, Bessie. I put my hand in her tank just once...she had gentle eyes...Now we had wild caught caribe (sp?) piranha...those thing were nasty. My hand never went in a tank with those creepy fish. [Allie]

Allie

Baby piranha will bite you...piranha are braver when they are younger. Not that I recommend anyone putting their hand in the tank. You have to get to know individual fish to see how aggressive each one is. We had a 12" female red belly, Bessie. I put my hand in her tank just once...she had gentle eyes...Now we had wild caught caribe (sp?) piranha...those thing were nasty. My hand never went in a tank with those creepy fish.

Wilhelm Joshua Tan

It is nice but the problem is that you don't froze the animal when it is alive and they can grow upto 14 inches if it is a red piranha.

armadillo

Thanks, Allie. Just added your remarks to the main body of the caresheet.

Neville, I've finally gotten round to standardising this one. Sorry for the delay.

armadillo

Thanks, WJT. Just added your remark now.

Wilhelm Joshua Tan

You are welcome but my teacher said that piranha can grow 2 ft.

robbieb

Feeding:

Piranhas eat a lot. Adolescent piranhas require feeding more often than adults. They should be fed 2-3 times per day. If left underfed, they will begin to feed on each others fins and scales. Even more so, they can (and will) kill one of their shoal and eat it.

Since live food is not necessarily the best option, I recommend a diet of pellets (I use hikari) and use beef heart and live fish as a treat.

After reaching adulthood, they will eat more at a time, but eat less frequently. They usually eat once every day or two.

robbieb

Size:

Depending on the specie, the size can vary a substantial amount. The most common, Red belly, can grow to about 14" in the wild, but in an aquarium, usually only around 10".

Black Piranhas have been reported to have grown over 24" in the wild, but usually can grow between 14-18" in the aquarium.

Baby piranhas grow VERY FAST. A 1" piranha will grow between .5-1" per month (depending on feeding and water conditions). Once the piranha gets around 3", the growth begins to slow down. I'm guessing an inch per year?