# When Did You Get Your First Piranha(s)? And What Species?



## Sylar_92 (Dec 15, 2010)

I got my first piranhas june.24,2000. Little red bellies from Pjs pet store back when I lived Toronto. Knew nothing about them, just raised them and grew them till the day they died. Now after 10 years I learned to fully appreciate this fish and have started the hobby for real this time. How about you?


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## shaneb (May 4, 2010)

First was a red belly about 20 years ago. Got into the hobby because my pops has always had P's. Its the only fish our family ever kept while i was growing up..lol


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Summer of 87. Group of rbp in 110X-high.


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## Sylar_92 (Dec 15, 2010)

shaneb said:


> First was a red belly about 20 years ago. Got into the hobby because my pops has always had P's. Its the only fish our family ever kept while i was growing up..lol


LOL thats a cool and funny story. Most people I ask about their first fish respond back to me gold fish.


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## Hogdog (Feb 1, 2010)

I only started keeping Piranha last summer after nearly thirty years of owning and breeding all sorts, mostly Amazonian.

I used to love my shoal of Altum Angels until TB wiped them out and I may go back to them at some point but I love my little Marginatus too.

Amazonian fish is where my heart is, my dream is to go on a fishing trip to south America one day.


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## BuckeyeGuy777 (Oct 30, 2010)

bout 20 years ago- 2 reds and a guppy tank for food


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## Joe.G (Dec 20, 2010)

1996 or 1997 Got 4 RBP'S had them for seven years when they all died one night. Now I got my Second Batch Dec of 2010.


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## Sylar_92 (Dec 15, 2010)

Hogdog said:


> I only started keeping Piranha last summer after nearly thirty years of owning and breeding all sorts, mostly Amazonian.
> 
> I used to love my shoal of Altum Angels until TB wiped them out and I may go back to them at some point but I love my little Marginatus too.
> 
> Amazonian fish is where my heart is, my dream is to go on a fishing trip to south America one day.


Thinking about opening my own piranha dedicatated fish/petstore in the future, maybe you can be one of my suppiers lol.


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## Hogdog (Feb 1, 2010)

Sylar_92 said:


> I only started keeping Piranha last summer after nearly thirty years of owning and breeding all sorts, mostly Amazonian.
> 
> I used to love my shoal of Altum Angels until TB wiped them out and I may go back to them at some point but I love my little Marginatus too.
> 
> Amazonian fish is where my heart is, my dream is to go on a fishing trip to south America one day.


Thinking about opening my own piranha dedicatated fish/petstore in the future, maybe you can be one of my suppiers lol.








[/quote]

If I catch anything nice I'm keeping it


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## RiptideRush (Jan 22, 2011)

In 02 I ran across a add on Craigslist for a "pike piranha" for, if I remember correctly, $90. Soon after I was an owner of a new 5.5" elong in a bucket. My very first piranha. At the time I had a 55 gal cichlid tank which consisted of what I believed to be a possible mating pair of five star generals, a 5" and 6". Those familiar with five star generals know that courting generals at this size are some mean s.o.bs. Ive always had cichlids. Dovis, festaes, umbees, you name it. I loved there looks, how territorial they were, their toughness. That was all flipped upside down when I introduced that pike into that tank. I remember it like it was yesterday. As soon as I released it, it "darted" to the corner where it stayed until the generals ran up on it. I remember noticing it tilting upwards, shaking, as if it were planning to blast off out the tank and then boom! Those two cichlids didn't know what hit them. It was too fast, it never locked lips, it circled faster, it came from behind, the anal fins clean off. That pike took the fight out those fishes in less than a minute if not two. This happened right out the bucket. Those same two generals handled a 8" bully buttakoferi. And I mean bully. What amazed me the most was that this piranha kept at it. I had to remove the two generals. I couldn't believe such a fish could handle a PAIR of five stars so easily. Untouched. From the gate. Out the bucket. I'm ashamed looking back and regret adding that pike to that tank, it was ignorant of me to do so, but what happened on that day was what started my intrest and addiction with piranhas.


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

I was in college, back in '03 and I wanted to set up a fish tank. Went to a store in South Philly and they had baby piranhas. After talking to the people there, I left with a 10 gallon tank setup and 3 baby rbps. They convinced me that all 3 could live in the 10 gallon. Needless to say, by the time I graduated (a couple months later) I had 1 rbp in a 10 gallon tank. I moved home, bought a bigger tank and the addiction started.


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## bigshawn (Dec 29, 2005)

I got my first Piranha's in the mid 80's they were 7 reds started with 12 fed them gold fish, rosey's, chicken hamburger, had them for bout 7 years before I traded them in for some bird suppies............


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## I Can Mate (Apr 8, 2010)

RiptideRush said:


> In 02 I ran across a add on Craigslist for a "pike piranha" for, if I remember correctly, $90. Soon after I was an owner of a new 5.5" elong in a bucket. My very first piranha. At the time I had a 55 gal cichlid tank which consisted of what I believed to be a possible mating pair of five star generals, a 5" and 6". Those familiar with five star generals know that courting generals at this size are some mean s.o.bs. Ive always had cichlids. Dovis, festaes, umbees, you name it. I loved there looks, how territorial they were, their toughness. That was all flipped upside down when I introduced that pike into that tank. I remember it like it was yesterday. As soon as I released it, it "darted" to the corner where it stayed until the generals ran up on it. I remember noticing it tilting upwards, shaking, as if it were planning to blast off out the tank and then boom! Those two cichlids didn't know what hit them. It was too fast, it never locked lips, it circled faster, it came from behind, the anal fins clean off. That pike took the fight out those fishes in less than a minute if not two. This happened right out the bucket. Those same two generals handled a 8" bully buttakoferi. And I mean bully. What amazed me the most was that this piranha kept at it. I had to remove the two generals. I couldn't believe such a fish could handle a PAIR of five stars so easily. Untouched. From the gate. Out the bucket. I'm ashamed looking back and regret adding that pike to that tank, it was ignorant of me to do so, but what happened on that day was what started my intrest and addiction with piranhas.


just remember piranhas got the teeth , I first started with 3 rbps in the summer of 09 after a fishing trip with my cousins and we decided both to start collecting fish. then 4 months after that i got my first black piranha which turned out to be a sanchezi. i traded that in for a rhom since that was what i wanted to start with. i then sold my rbp for a bm elongatus which i only had for 2 months. i then moved to an apartment and now currently keeping my rhom.


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## Piranha-Freak101 (Dec 8, 2010)

November 15, 2011 6 pygos


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## Johnny_Zanni (Nov 8, 2009)

bigshawn said:


> I got my first Piranha's in the mid 80's they were 7 reds started with 12 fed them gold fish, rosey's, chicken hamburger, had them for bout 7 years before I traded them in for some bird suppies............


Long time no see man. Good to see your still alive!

November 2009. 1/2" Nattereri.


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## chrscap (Feb 16, 2007)

in 04' I had a 10"+ Xingu rhom in a 125 with breeding convicts to feed on.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

My first piranha was an elong in a 75gal tank back in 07.


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## Sanjo Eel (Aug 21, 2008)

Sylar_92 said:


> Thinking about opening my own piranha dedicatated fish/petstore in the future, maybe you can be one of my suppiers lol.


I always wanted to open a LFS dedicated to aggressive fish. I wanted to call it "Madfins". There was a store that specialized in mean fish in Dayton, OH years ago. Can't remember the name but it was on the west side. I think it is a great niche. I'll never open a LFS though, rather just move to the ocean where I can swim with them.

Back on topic, I got my first piranha in 1999 or thereabouts. 2 reds in a 40 long setup for $50. They were great fish, even spawned in there. Had em for a couple years; they died after being moved to my Dad's house for a while while I was out of state. A feeder clogged the filter intake and nobody noticed...dumb dumb mistake but they were my first fish I had kept of any kind.

Addicted to fishkeeping ever since and particularly piranha.


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## kanito107 (Feb 1, 2011)

ive always wanted piranhas but had no clue if they were legal until recently, a little after christmas, i saw river monster and thought "it would be cool to have piranhas" and as a joke i told my girlfriend im getting some next week. 
i did some research and found out they were illigal but only in a few states then i saw my state wasnt listed so i got exited, set up a 55g, went to my lfs and got 3 rbp on jan 30, 2011.
havent regreted a single second


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

around 2002, before i found this site, i ordered like 5 baby rbp from, a now, infamous website. Problem was they sent me all baby serras (probably rhoms). i was going to keep them all in a 75g









Even when i called them and told them what they sent, the were insistent that they were rbp, which, even in my newbie phase, could tell they were not.

on a side note, one of them leaped out of the packaging and bit me, and just hung a little from my finger...that guy should have been a keeper


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## Piranha-Freak101 (Dec 8, 2010)

primetime3wise said:


> around 2002, before i found this site, i ordered like 5 baby rbp from, a now, infamous website. Problem was they sent me all baby serras (probably rhoms). i was going to keep them all in a 75g
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

piranha-freak101 said:


> around 2002, before i found this site, i ordered like 5 baby rbp from, a now, infamous website. Problem was they sent me all baby serras (probably rhoms). i was going to keep them all in a 75g
> 
> 
> 
> ...











[/quote]

yes, thank god they were only like 1.5"


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## smb (Jun 1, 2003)

Some of you guys have great memories. I cant even be sure the exact year let alone the month.







I think it was in 1985 and was def natts.


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## warpet (May 21, 2004)

My first Piranhees were 5 1" red belly in 1977 purchased at Day One Tropical Fish in Trenton Mi for $5. I've been buying them as babies ever since. I've never purchsed a Piranha bigger than 2", I like watching them grow.


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## wizardslovak (Feb 17, 2007)

4 RBs , not even inch , in 10 gall tank , died 4 days later as i didnt do research before i bought them , i will never forget those


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## Nzac (Oct 13, 2010)

1990 got a 55 gallon tank and 6 baby reds, after about 6 months of these I stumbled across a little 1/2" fish at the local fish shop, I remember it perfectly, the little fish was called a "black diamond piranha" and had a price tag of $35 on it, I asked the guy if he was serious on the price and to explain to me why it was so expensive... gave my 4 remaining reds to a buddy and went back next day and bought this shiney little thing. About a year later my buddy had to give me the reds back as he got into breeding cichlids and needed the tank they were in. I took them back with only the one tank still, put them in with the black, watched them carefully that night, everthing was fine. woke up the next morning to find all the 10-11" reds had bites out of them, not just fins mind you, big chunks missing, and the little 4" black was unscathed (keep in mind in 1991/2 there wasn't much known about these fish in this state, I had actually only seen 1 other than mine). Had to bring the reds to the fish shop and take whatever store credit they would give me. What a wonderful little "monster" i had found.It was the most bad ass, meanest little fish I have ever seen. that thing hit about 5" and I couldn't keep him fed, everything I put in his tank was dead in seconds. Unfortunately I had a small child that wouldn't keep his little hands away from the fish tank and had to get rid of it. That little rhom hooked me for life on these fish. It took me almost 20 years to get back into fish but I knew that I just had to have another rhom, or as it turns out 2 rhoms and a sanchezi so far, hopefully more to come.


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## FishermanCanada (Feb 12, 2007)

1988 i had my first6 baby reds. During a party a former friend thought adding beer to my tank was ok. To make a long story short when i woke up the next day and i noticed all of them dead , i got in my car went to his house and knocked him senseless. Then in 1993 i got my first rhom, i had never seen one before and i was captivated by it. The rhom apparently came in a shipment of reds. Then around 2000 i got back into it full time.

My grandfather also use to collect piranhas (reds)and i guess thats where i grew to enjoy them when i was really young.


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## sick of chiclids (May 25, 2010)

still a noob... first p's in mid aug of 2010... but i have 7 RBP in a 5' 110gl tank. bruner hooked me up with 14 tiny fish. one was under an inch and only lasted a few days. when they got a bit bigger i gave 5 back to him... the next day they decided 8 was still to many. at this point my 7 deadly sins are doing well and i will never keep cichlids again. i really want a baby rhom, but i don't have the tank space right now... the kicker is i have an empty 4' 60gl just begging for one.


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## Master1313 (Jan 22, 2011)

At 2000 seven red belly and i still have five of them


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