# Red Belly Noob



## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

I have 2 red bellied piranhas that I have had for about a month now.
They are in a 30 gallon tank with
-A hang-on filter rated for up to 55 gallons
-Air rock
-White gravel about 1 1/2 inch deep
-Live plants
-Drift wood and decorative plant float at the top
-2 decorations
-heater set at 78

My current plans are
-55+ gallon tank
-external canister filter or a home built wet/dry sump

Currently they have been eating cut up hot dogs. (if this is very bad for them, let me know) They have only had a couple pieces of this. I have been looking for an alternate food source. There are 4 live guppies in there that I bought with the piranhas. The guppies were just fry at the time, now they have grown and are too fast for my piranhas.

I understand that I am new to this. If I am doing something wrong, please do not bash me about it. I am hearing looking for help from experts/experienced people and not to get a bashing about doing something wrong.

Abshere


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

No more hotdogs! Many kinds of pellets, silversides, krill, shrimp, tilapia fillets,nightcrawlers, beefheart,clean feeders, troutworms,leeches, pinkies, welcome aboard.tons of info here for ya to check out.


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## Johnny_Zanni (Nov 8, 2009)

Like bruner said no more hotdogs lol. They can eat any type of white fish meat (Cod, Soul, Tilapia, Halibut, Perch, Bass) also commercial pellets. They can also eat uncooked shrimp.

As for future tank plans instead of a 55g I would upgrade to a 75g. It should not cost very much more but your piranha will thank you for it.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Hi Abshere, welcome to the hobby and to the site!









Like Bruner said, best to skip the weiners.
Pellets, shrimp, tilapia, etc. are much better for 'em.

Glad you're upgrading to a larger tank soon, and better filtration as well.
Are you new to fishkeeping in general or just piranhas?
Do you know about tank cycling and such?

Would love to see some pics of your set-up... got any?


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Abshere said:


> I have 2 red bellied piranhas that I have had for about a month now.
> They are in a 30 gallon tank with
> -A hang-on filter rated for up to 55 gallons
> -Air rocknot really needed but wont hurt anything
> ...


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## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

hope your enjoying the little devils. keep your eye out for aggression with just two of them in such a small tank, things can turn bad pretty quickly (at least they did for me). all of the suggestions everyone said were good but for most of them its alot of work for such small fish. Try krill and bloodworms for now until they start eating ridiculous amounts of the stuff, then try switching up to shrimp, and then up to fish fillets. I soak my shrimp and fillets in kent zoe and freeze it so I have enough for a while. Always make sure your food is thawed out when you feed them though.

Good Luck!

oh and just cuz everyone else is doing it, no more hotdogs!


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## Parsa (Nov 12, 2008)

why does the food have to be thanwed out before feeding?? what about blood worms, how do you thaw those out?


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## Johnny_Zanni (Nov 8, 2009)

Parsa said:


> why does the food have to be thanwed out before feeding?? what about blood worms, how do you thaw those out?


Its easier for the p's to eat. Also most frozen fish/shrimp will float.


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## Parsa (Nov 12, 2008)

yea i guess so but you dont thaw out blood worms?


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## Johnny_Zanni (Nov 8, 2009)

Its easier to break off chunks when its frozen and it keeps them fresh. They thaw within seconds of being in tank water.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Parsa said:


> yea i guess so but you dont thaw out blood worms?


 you can thaw them in a small bowl or something but blood worms will thaw fast anyways. You DON"T want a large pygo trying to bite a fillet that is frozen solid


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

Piranha_man said:


> Hi Abshere, welcome to the hobby and to the site!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I have a 20 gallon set up in my living room. In that I have 5 goldfish, 1 pleco, and a columbian shark. That tank stays plenty warm for the shark. I have had goldfish and such for most of my time growing up. I am just new to piranhas.

I had the tank set up for a week before the piranhas even seen it. I used a tank starter from my LPS. The lady there has had piranhas before and she highly recommended using it to start the tank out.

I will have pictures soon.


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

Thank you to everyone who has given me info already. Especially the 'no weiners'!! lol. They were on pellets at first when I got them, but I ran out of the pellets and the store where I get them is out of the pellets.









I will be posting pictures soon.

I read the forum about different substrate and I have picked up some quikrete pool filter sand. This will be replacing the white gravel within the next few days.


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## Johnny_Zanni (Nov 8, 2009)

Make sure you rinse the sand good. Also a columbian shark will quicky outgrow a 20g. They grow bigger then RBP


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

Johnny_Zanni said:


> Make sure you rinse the sand good. Also a columbian shark will quicky outgrow a 20g. They grow bigger then RBP


What is the best way to rinse the sand?


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## Johnny_Zanni (Nov 8, 2009)

5g bucket, put some sand in and pour water in and mix the sand till the water runs out clear. It may take a few times but it will save you a lot of trouble.


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

I have just finished moving my rbs to a 10g for the night while I rinsed and put in the sand. Now I am just waiting for the water to clear and I have to reset all the decor. I have only drained about 30% of the water, so once I fill it, I will test the water and make sure everything is good. Once I get this set I will post new pics of the tank. Also I hope that I can get a good picture of them to ensure that they are indeed rbs.


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## Johnny_Zanni (Nov 8, 2009)

If they both look exactly like the one you posted earlier. Then yes they are Pygocentrus Nattereri (Red Bellied Piranha)


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

Johnny_Zanni said:


> If they both look exactly like the one you posted earlier. Then yes they are Pygocentrus Nattereri (Red Bellied Piranha)


They both look like that. I have the water filled in my tank. I am waiting for it to settle now. I will be mixing some live plants and some fake ones.


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## the_w8 (Jul 28, 2003)

you also may want to get another 1-2 RBP's It's not good only having 2. That can create dominance/territory issues.


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

^^

What he said, Very nice looking babies though.


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

Thanks. I will check with my LFS and see if she can order me 2 more. They should be fine in my 30g for a while. I am always watching them to see how they are. Would a 75g be big enough for 4 reds? 
I changed the substrate to filter sand last night. It was still cliudy this morning when i left for work.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

It should eventually work it's way clear via filtration.


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

So a big update tonight. I have the 30g's water mostly clear. I set up a cascade canister filter. I am using the spray bar attachment currently. Any thoughts on using the other attachment...a directional 'jet'? I have also order 2 more reds from my LPS. She is going to try to see if she can order them the same size as mine. So hopefully I wont have a lot to worry about when I put them in the tank. I will get those wednesday. Hope to have them in the tank on Thanksgiving. Once the water stabilizes I will post new pictures of the tank. Hoping that with Christmas right around the corner there will be some pretty nice deals on a 75+ tank somewhere. If I had more room or my garage were heated I would build a tank.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

A 75g will be fine for 4 reds. I dont know where you are but big als usually has some good boxing day sales. Im not sure but petco or petsmart could have something like that too.


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

I am located in WI. I have a couple petcos with an hours drive and also a petsmart. My LFS wants $500 for tank and stand. Comes with lights and glass top.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

What sized tank? You have to be a lil more specific, if its a 120+gal thats not a bad deal for a new tank


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

Have you ever thought to check for used tanks? Sometimes you can find really good deals on the web as far as used tanks go.


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

****** said:


> What sized tank? You have to be a lil more specific, if its a 120+gal thats not a bad deal for a new tank


Sorry. I thought I had it on there. Its for a 75g.


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## Johnny_Zanni (Nov 8, 2009)

Abshere said:


> What sized tank? You have to be a lil more specific, if its a 120+gal thats not a bad deal for a new tank


Sorry. I thought I had it on there. Its for a 75g.








[/quote]

Honestly thats a little steep. I would look for something used.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Johnny_Zanni said:


> What sized tank? You have to be a lil more specific, if its a 120+gal thats not a bad deal for a new tank


Sorry. I thought I had it on there. Its for a 75g.








[/quote]

Honestly thats a little steep. I would look for something used.
[/quote]

If its just the tank and stand its steep imo but if its a 75g setup its not bad assuming everything with it is good and you wont just have to replace anyways


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

CLUSTER ONE said:


> What sized tank? You have to be a lil more specific, if its a 120+gal thats not a bad deal for a new tank


Sorry. I thought I had it on there. Its for a 75g.








[/quote]

Honestly thats a little steep. I would look for something used.
[/quote]

If its just the tank and stand its steep imo but if its a 75g setup its not bad assuming everything with it is good and you wont just have to replace anyways
[/quote]

Its a 75g with a oak stand. Comes with a decoration, hang on filter, lights, freshwater 'start-up' kit. The kit includes goldfish flakes and a water dechlorinater bottle.


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

Came home from work yesterday and my 30g was leaking. I have temporarily moved the piranhas to another tank and taken down the 30g completely. I am looking at buying a new tank on Wednesday. The lady at my LFS will sell me the 75g, stand, glass tops, and lights for 415. The looks like this one, only longer and its 75g. http://www.csnstores.com/Marineland-19826-MRN1006.html

I can post some pictures of how I had my 30g before it started leaking.

Would that 75g be a good deal?


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

So, i have had piranhas on order for a couple weeks. My 2 current reds are starting to pick on eachother pretty bad. I am hoping that they don't kill eachother before my other ones get here. I will have 4 in total hopefully.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Abshere said:


> Came home from work yesterday and my 30g was leaking. I have temporarily moved the piranhas to another tank and taken down the 30g completely. I am looking at buying a new tank on Wednesday. The lady at my LFS will sell me the 75g, stand, glass tops, and lights for 415. The looks like this one, only longer and its 75g. http://www.csnstores.com/Marineland-19826-MRN1006.html
> 
> I can post some pictures of how I had my 30g before it started leaking.
> 
> Would that 75g be a good deal?


It's not a bad price but another option would be to go for a cheaper iron bar stand and mayby a cannister filter instead of hobs. I would try to price things seperatly too as the problem with kits is they don't usually have the best stuff. They arnt bad but the deal you may get for buying a kit can be a bit counter productive sometimes if your just going to have to upgrade some things. What HoBS would it come with? Another option is to see if the lfs would be willing to customize the kit for you a bit and mayby switch out the hobs for a good cannister then mayby just pay the difference.

Personally when i made my 125g i started with the tank, glass lids, metal stand, xp3 and a heater. Nothing fancey but it was the the most functional setup i thought for the money. Unless you really like the look of a wood stand that would be my first place to cut costs by going with a metal bar stand. Another way to cut costs (to use for something more important like filtration) would be to do a diy stand.


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## Abshere (Nov 18, 2010)

CLUSTER ONE said:


> Came home from work yesterday and my 30g was leaking. I have temporarily moved the piranhas to another tank and taken down the 30g completely. I am looking at buying a new tank on Wednesday. The lady at my LFS will sell me the 75g, stand, glass tops, and lights for 415. The looks like this one, only longer and its 75g. http://www.csnstores.com/Marineland-19826-MRN1006.html
> 
> I can post some pictures of how I had my 30g before it started leaking.
> 
> Would that 75g be a good deal?


It's not a bad price but another option would be to go for a cheaper iron bar stand and mayby a cannister filter instead of hobs. I would try to price things seperatly too as the problem with kits is they don't usually have the best stuff. They arnt bad but the deal you may get for buying a kit can be a bit counter productive sometimes if your just going to have to upgrade some things. What HoBS would it come with? Another option is to see if the lfs would be willing to customize the kit for you a bit and mayby switch out the hobs for a good cannister then mayby just pay the difference.

Personally when i made my 125g i started with the tank, glass lids, metal stand, xp3 and a heater. Nothing fancey but it was the the most functional setup i thought for the money. Unless you really like the look of a wood stand that would be my first place to cut costs by going with a metal bar stand. Another way to cut costs (to use for something more important like filtration) would be to do a diy stand.
[/quote]

I never felt all that safe with my iron stands. It just doesn't look all that sturdy. Just my opinion. I did buy that 75g with the wooden stand. I have pictures posted on my post at http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?/topic/195466-new-75g-tank/

I did have a cascade canister filter, so I am just going to use that until I can get a second one of a bigger on and use the current one for my tank of goldfish in my living room.


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