Piranha Caresheet

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 omnivores 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. (71 F - 80 F)

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 30 gallon 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]

Credits
The main body of the caresheet was prepared by Neville.
The caresheet was standardised and editted by Armadillo.
Photo copyright JJPhotos.dk
Other contributors are credited next to the relevant text.

Want to add something?

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

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.

 

Thanks, WJT. Just added your remark now.

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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?

 

Dont know why you guys are so worried about the baby ones. I have 6 red bellies and I have had my hands in the tank with them several times from moving deccorations around to cleaning the tank out. They have never even nipped at me. I have even gone to the extent of pricking my finger which made it bleed and put it in the take all they did was look at it and nothing more. They are very gentle towards humans and very gentle. However they will attack other fish I feed them feeder goldfish and bloodworms, as well as flake food.

 

Nice sheet, very informative... wondering if you would be able to feed them fish heads (which most people can get from local fish markets and any market that butchers there own fish for free, they are usually glad to be rid of them) to keep it where they still get lots of meat, but you don't have to keep buying live foods, or switching primarily live foods for pellets and flakes and live foods as supplement? I don't have any myself, I was just interested in seeing if I would find it worth it to set up a tank for a little shoal of four, and I wanted to suggest the fish head thing for people who would wish to economize but not compromize the fish's natural diet.

 

I noticed the sheet mentioned the fish were carnivores.....arent they omnivores? Just wondering

 

Good morning,

According to the information below, yes, these fish are Omnivores:
https://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-Piranha.htm

Please check the dates of the original post before responding. This thread is old.

Closed thread.

Ken