# A little note on piranha fry.



## oldbrothercain

Having owned piranhas for many, many years and not ever actually having them spawn or have not realized it, until recently, I was very unprepared. One must be set up and waiting for spawning to happen. You will need 10-15 gallon tanks(maybe two or three) if your fish are actively spawning, you will also need to know how to hatch brine shrimp, they will eat nothing else! Trying to feed them other things will mess up the water and fry will die of lack of nutrition. Nothing else works well besides brine shrimp. My first biggest problem was the brine shrimp, following the directions on the eggs, make sure your pH is atleast 8, being on a well that was my first biggest problem. I didn't know the pH needed to be that high. You will also need large sponge filters that are well established. One can do water changes on their fry tanks that will definitely help them, but invertnatly you are fighting a losing battle with water quality. I now have my 6th spawning since mid-june and I have failed miserably up to this point, this itme I'm ready and waiting. I have gotten a lot of information from this forum, some good, some bad, but most good. Thanks to everyone who has responded to any of my posts. Your responses are greatly appreciated. Piranhas can be taken in and out of spawn, if they are spawning and you want them stop, mess up your tank completely to disturb the fish. A good cleaning of everything, gravel, walls, glass, everything, should do it. To put them back into spawn (I have managed to do this) feed them heavily, I feed my piranhas large shrimp and large goldfish. Also, I so 10-15% water changes every ohter day, without disturbing the fish. On about my 4th or 5th water change I will raise the pH ever so slightly, on my next water change I'll raise the pH half of a point, this usually puts them into spawn within three to four days. Their color starts to darken. My tank usually runs with a pH level of 5. Good luck with the little ones, they're a handful.


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## WillieWonka1




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## LGHT

Glad you got your brine shrimp to hatch. The best temp for hatching would be about 80-85%. Although they will hatch at lower temps the hatchout rate will be smaller and it will take longer. If you ever need tips on raising P-fry you can apply the same steps and concepts as raising Angelfish. Since they both come from the same waters and area all the same concepts apply.

If you having problems with Brine shrimp there are other options of live food for your fry.

1) Vinegar eels - Very small hair like worms that work well for small fry like beta and Angel fish.

2) Micro Worms - A little larger than Vinegar eels, but still small enough for new fry.

3) Grindal worms - A good 2-3 week food for fry as these are a bit larger and have more protein for the fish.

I found it's good to keep a culture or 2 of different types of food handy in the event that BBS don't hatch. Although first bites and small fry are good they have a lot higher chance of fouling the water and are a lot harder to clean up if they fry don't eat them.

If you guys need info on where to get worms shoot me a PM and i'll pass on info from a great seller that can put together a combo box of whatever you need.

Good luck!


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## geostomp

Nice thread! I like the microworms. They seem to live in the water for at least 2 days without fowling the water like bbs does within hours. I hatch bbs once daily so i have both on hand which is nice for variety but when i feel like dumping food in there i do the worms. I have raised thousands of angels and the big difference to me is the ammonia produced when 3000 eggs are hatching as appossed to 300. Its neat i thought i lost all of my last spawn but just found about 300 in the parent tank!! I think I'll just leave them in the paren tank next time and net them out after freeswimming. 
Proliferate RP's


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## LGHT

Yeah I would suggest at least a 29 long or bigger and a HOB filter when hatching 3000 eggs. My buddy lost probably 2/3 of his RBP fry because he was trying to hatch them in a 20 and couldn't keep up with the level changes. The next batch he had was in a 40 long and he didn't have any problems at all except for the fact that he need 3 extra grow out tanks because all the fry that lived. Not a bad problem to have at all.


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## Mattones

How about adding a section onto the 120 but by blocking it off?


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## LGHT

I wouldn't advise it. If you have them in the same tank you won't be able to do water changes as often, you won't be able to treat the water with Meth Blue to avoid fungus. You won't be able to ensure that parents won't eat the eggs / fry once they start getting bigger. It can be done and some fish parent raise, but why take the risk?


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