Some questions on pirhanas

Wats crackin to everyone I'm a new member here. Just purchased 3 young red bellys like an inch in length got em in a 20 gal for the time being. Got a couple questions, 1.) i'm feeding them frozen beef heart. is that good food? 2.) got a couple plants in there the food is getting caught and is also dropping to the bottom uneaten. should I take out plants for a half log or something like that? and 3.) when do you know it's feeding time?

 

hmm here's what I know:
1. Not sure on the food, frozen is the way to go though, I've read prawn, some shrimp that you buy in a grocery store is also gooed. beef heart sounds OK but not sure.
2. I would keep the plants, put them in a corner, red bellies can be skittish and they need some cover. If there live plants they may end up tearing them apart. Try putting some power heads in to keep the food moving until eaten/filtered out.
3. Feeding once a day should be sufficent

Just some more info if you don't know, the red bellies can get over a foot in length each and for three you will need a much bigger tank, 150-180 bare minimum. They may end up picking on each other and one maybe two may get killed, though if your lucky they may not fight with each other. They are messy eaters and need excellent filtration. There's much more info on them, I just hope you know what you are getting into, my friend bought pirhanas then returned them and got cichlids since the pirhanas were too much for him. good luck

 

Additional info
1. Beef heart is ok, but I would go with at least some fish products, too. Contrary to popular belief, piranhas eat mostly fish. Prawns would be good. I would think that pretty much any fish would be good, just vary it. Different types of food have different amounts of various nutrients. Varying feeding balances these nutrients.
2. Try feeding them with a pair of forceps. If you're feeling creative, set up a rig that suspends the meat so you don't have to sit there while they eat.
3. Once a day is probably ok. They should probably have a fasting day of the week. Being cold-blooded, they don't need anywhere near the proportion of food that we do. To give you an example, the sharks (full-grown adult reef sharks) at the Minnesota Zoo are fed three times a week, and each get something like three pounds of food in a feeding, if I recall. Overfeeding can result in overweight and sick fish.

 

Young piranha love frozen blood worm. Get them some of that & they go nuts. We have 2" Serrasalmus eigenmannI ,wild caught and he goes crazy. They also love shrimp.

 

Young piranha love frozen blood worm. Get them some of that & they go nuts. We have 2" Serrasalmus eigenmannI ,wild caught and he goes crazy. They also love shrimp.

Worms, blood and otherwise, are another food, especially if you're having problems feeding them (perhaps if they're sick, they might decide they don't want to go after non-moving food), dangle a worm in the tank. The greatest thing is, you can get them from your yard (though I'd rinse them off, first)

 

u can feed them blood worms, brine shrimp, raw shrimp. beef hert, or even chicken.(on occasion)
youll know when its feeding time... lol or if u can't tell then I would say until they reach about 4 inch in length keep feeding every day... try to make it around the same time every day aswell to get the fish into routine eating habbits.

and also the food they do not eat should be removed after no more then 1 hour of being in the tank un eaten .
leave yer plants in reds like to hide but in time they will come out of there shell.

 

One thing I've found, is (well with mine at least) living food is actually a good way to go, goldfish, guppies . . . heck, I started a tank for breeding guppies and mollies just to feed mine. Mine will also eat lettuce, oddly enough, and as for live plants, I've noticed he leaves them alone, so they should be good with them. As for the food being left uneaten, don't put as much food in there. Find out how much they can eat, and then only feed them that much. I actually found mine will just kill the goldfish and let them float . . . . . . . so . . . I'd say 3 goldfish sized portions per fish per every other day.

 

It's not odd that piranhas eat lettuce. Nearly all of them are omnivorous, and a few are herbivores.
Live fish are good, as long as you can afford to run your own breeding tank so that you know the quality of the food you're putting in the piranha's tank.