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How To Care For Piranhas

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How To Care For Piranhas

Piranhas are a carnivorous fish from South America, which have a fearsome reputation. This film will show you the basics of looking after pet piranhas if you wish to keep them as pets. Piranhas are a carnivorous fish from South America, which have a fearsome reputation. This film will show you the basics of looking after pet piranhas if you wish to keep them as pets.

Step 1: Is it safe to keep piranhas?

Piranhas are only dangerous in large tanks or shoals.
In smaller tanks of 3-4 fish they are not overly aggressive to humans.
Red-bellied piranhas are best for beginners.
Yellow-bellied and black-bellied piranhas are more aggressive and more difficult to keep.

Step 2: What do pet piranhas eat?

It is illegal to feed piranhas live food, or buy live food such as goldfish to feed to piranhas.
There are plenty of alternatives such as frozen mussels, cockles, lance fish. etc. which piranhas will eat readily.
Do not overfeed piranhas. Excess food will remain in the tank and rot. If there is leftover food in the water after feeding, remove it with a net.

Step 3: What special requirements do piranhas have?

A piranha tank needs extra filtration - double the amount as for other fish. Use one internal and one external filter to keep water extra clean for them.
Tank should be well planted with lots of cover. Piranhas don't like bright tanks; they like to have lots of hiding places.

Good luck keeping your piranhas. They make wonderful pets.

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Tips & Comments
  1. AdamC4797

    hi if you want piranhas to be more crazy then you need more of them just the 2 will make them to shy you really need a big tank for them in order to have more and theres a good reason why he did not put plants there because piranhas love to hide away he need to sell them so you can see them they perfer it but they dont need it

  2. HackyHonky

    This video states that piranhas are carnivorous (strictly animal eaters), this is not true. Piranhas are omnivorous (plant and animal eaters) and need a variety of different types of food to satisfy their nutritional requirements and keep them healthy. You should do a lot of research about piranhas and be an experienced fish keeper before attempting to keep them. This video doesn't even come close to telling you everything you need to know about raising healthy piranhas. Did you notice that when it talked about keeping plants in the aquarium to provide cover and hiding places it showed a planted tank with no piranhas? In the tank that had piranhas there were no plants or any other type of cover they could hide in. In my opinion this site should not be used as a reference on piranha keeping. there are plenty of other websites with much better information about this hobby, like monsterfishkeepers.com and piranhafury.com.

  3. ghelfrich

    i have 2 red bellied piranas, i want them to go more crazy when i feed them...anybody got any tips?? i feed them 2 fish every second or third day one for each of them...

  5. cliford

    i have swallows in my garden and you buy birdboxes

  6. cliford

    were do you get piranhas from i want one so i can trow my sister in the tank lol

  7. cliford

    how can you tell if my teripin is a girl orrr boy lol

  8. cliford

    hi i have a teripin they are so cute but do bite i have been feeding mine fresh fish i wacth it eat them its soo good and i have swallows in my garden can you get birdboxes for them lol

  9. andyc1984

    wats the best thing to feed red belly piranha? i bought 20 and now have 7 i currently fed them bloodworm and steak pieces

  10. mark-g

    could i keep 1 red belly piranha in a 29 gallon tank