# breeding basics



## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

im getting a 225g from bobme this summer, gonna get a lot of reds probabally. is there anything that makes it more likely for them to breed such as light or dark substrate, driftwood, plants, lighting, how many in the tank. or does it just come naturally.


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

try to set that tank up in a "stress free inviornment" if possible, what i mean by that is. Try and have the tank in a corner away from an entrance or a major walk way, this will avoid spooking them, and making them all group together is a shoal from being frightened. keep water temps in the low 80's 81-82 deg. use two heaters instead of a big 300watt heater placed at both ends. try and keep water changes on a schedule like every sat or sun..... feed them frequent smaller portions. drop water level a couple inches to have splashing on the surface. to simulate the rainy seasons from the amazon. Lighting can stay the same as usual. these are just some things that helps me keep regular spawns, but it all remains up to your p's the sparks







have to be there in order for them to pair off.....


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## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

thanks. is there any decor i should go with. will they breed in a bare tank?? not that im wanting a bare tank, just wanting to know what they like best


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

Hi there,
I have had recent success in breeding my red belly piranha's.

I have a 55 Gallon tank, in which there are 6 P's & 1 Cat fish. The P's are around 8 months old and I have had then for 2 months. I keep the temperature at around 78 deg. And the tank is situated in our busy, noisey living room (we have 3 children).

I purchased these p's when they were 6 months old, and within 4 weeks of getting them I noticed I was sucking up fry in my gravel filter when I was doing a weekly water change.

Since they have started breeding I have been doing a 3 quarter water change every 2 weeks. They seem to be breeding approx every 2 weeks. We think we have 2 females and 4 males and they breed simultaneously. So far they have had 6 cluches of eggs and they are now breeding again.

We have syphoned the fry into a 10 Gallon tank and so far around 50 have survived. We did try to do the same with eggs but had no success. We have noticed some fry still surviving in the main tank too, they are very quick and as we don't wish to unsettle the adult P's too much we have decided to leave them in there.

When ever they have bred and we have taken the eggs or fry, they start to feed again but within 10 days only the females eat again and then they start to breed.

I hope this is of use to you and I will post my progress on the breeding forum.

Good luck.


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## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

thanks, i wouldnt do it if i were them, they have red gravel :rasp:


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## bryang (May 2, 2004)

red bellies mature at 8months old?


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

bryang said:


> red bellies mature at 8months old?










nope


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## piranhaha (Mar 22, 2004)

i smell bull shite


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

I'm Sorry, What do you think is Bull Shite?


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

hrprvilla said:


> I'm Sorry, What do you think is Bull Shite?


 the part where you say the p's are around 8 months old







i think you are probably off by 6 months to a year on that guess, no biggy







reds only become sexually mature at 1.5 yrs and up don't go by size of the p's that could fool you easily, they could of been kept in a very small tank and been very stressed and did not grow to the size they should be at that age.

read this please







frank explains it here


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

Hi there,

I have seen the person I bought these P's from today and he guarantee's me that they where six months old when he sold them to me. He bought them from a pet shop when they where only 2 inches long.

This is the first experience I have had with piranah's. All I can tell you is what I know and what has occured since purchasing them. I have found Piranah Fury a very help site and was insulted when I was accused of lying.

I thought if I shared my experiences it may help others.

I do have one question. How many times do Piranah breed as mine have been breeding almost every 2 - 3 weeks since the begining of June.


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

> I have found Piranha Fury a very help site and was insulted when I was accused of lying.


sorry if you got offended by the direct answer but just want to make clear of the error on the age difference.


> I thought if I shared my experiences it may help others


all information provided by members is very helpful and encouraged providing there is detailed proof of breeding pairs (pics) & (video's) showing pictures of fry is quite an accomplishment but doesn't show exactly which p's they came from. We have had trouble in the past and just watch for the concern of all members. If you could provide pics of the female and male piranhas breeding this would help out and possible an update on the fry! thanks.


> I do have one question. How many times do Piranha breed as mine have been breeding almost every 2 - 3 weeks since the beginning of June.


if you maintain a proper tank maintenance schedule, the p's quite possible could continue on breeding for many months to come.









good-luck


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## jmcrabb (Oct 3, 2003)

2 inches doesn't necessarily mean 2 months old... I have some juvis right now that are almost an inch, and they're about 2 months old... there are a couple that are only about 1/2 inch... they're the runts... size is not usually an accurate measure of age... regardless, congrats on the spawns!

EDIT: Nike, what do you use for filtration in your grow-out tanks, and have you changed the size of the grow out tanks from the tens you had in your pinned topic?


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## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

My breeding pairs have been laying eggs since the end of March! Just when the
last spawns start to become free swimming, I'm blessed with new spawns. I've tried switching back to only pellets on 1 pair, I'm wondering myself when and if they will stop breeding.I would love to stop them and take a break!


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

> EDIT: Nike, what do you use for filtration in your grow-out tanks, and have you changed the size of the grow out tanks from the tens you had in your pinned topic?


i use a sponge filter in the ten gallon tank and run an ac mini when they get big enough that they will not get sucked up, maybe at about 5-6 weeks old. just with a sponge, no carbon or any other type of media. Than shortly after i put them in a 30 gal breeder and try to beef them up with lots of shrimp and get them out to the lfs asap..... i tried to hatch a batch in the 30 gal breeder but found by the time they were all two weeks old the majority of them were dying or dead. the 30 gal breeder was to much water and to large for the lil fry to hunt down the brine shrimps imo and water changes were just to large and time consuming so i went back to the 10 gal for hatching and raising in the first stages and had much success.











> 2 inches doesn't necessarily mean 2 months old... I have some juvis right now that are almost an inch, and they're about 2 months old... there are a couple that are only about 1/2 inch... they're the runts... size is not usually an accurate measure of age... regardless, congrats on the spawns!


 very true on that :nod: i also once took a batch in to a lfs and sold them as small rbp fry. and 2 months later i took more fry from the same batch to the same lfs. They had 4 or 5 left from the original batch still and thought that they would put the ones i just brought in with the others as they were the same batch! but... the new ones i had taken in were about a good inch bigger and alot thicker. anyway they now decided to put the new batch in a separate tank and sell them as mediums as they were that much larger. so like you pointed out!! p's can not be pinned to a certain age at any given size, genes, diet, water parameters all can take effect on the size of the juveniles :nod: great point jmcrabb


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## jmcrabb (Oct 3, 2003)

I also noticed that when I tried to grow the newly hatched fry in my 29 that I lost all of them... but I assume that's because I was gone to New York for 4 days and nobody was able to do water changes on it... right now I have a 20L set up for the new fry, and my 29 is running for the juvies with a small power filter with a bio wheel on it... the 20L has 2 sponge filters in it, one at each end and it looks as though I'm going to get a pretty decent yield out of this one!

Thanks for the info


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## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

The 20gal long is the best hatching tank in my opinion. The extra 10 gallons affords more water to buffer ammonia spikes, and there is also more surface area which is always best. I find this tank is big enough (with an extra sponge filter) to handle the feeding of brine shrimp. I have actually raised out dime sized fish in the 20's to avoid moving fry. I usually have 4 stages of fry in separate 20's. I'm presently setting up a 125gal grow out tank to have some 2 inch fish for local pet stores. I can't wait to raise a group of 500 babies in that tank! I love to see hundreds of red babies eat!


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## hrprvilla (Apr 22, 2004)

These are my latest pictures of a male guarding his nest. I have now removed the eggs and put them into a 10 gal tank.

I now have around 25 of my first batch of fry surviving. I will post pictures soon.

I am feeding them on newly hatched brine shrimp at the moment, they are 1 month old now and are about 2cm long. How long do I feed them this way and what is the next step in feeding. Do I need to change their feed as they grow?


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## nubsmoke (Feb 4, 2004)

I feed brine shrimp continously until their bodies are showing silver when full , instead of orange from brine shrimp. This has been when the fry were 1/2 inch long and 1/8 inch tall, roughly. I have been sucessful moving them to frozen daphnia as the next food. When they are about 3/8 inch tall I start feeding frozen mysis shrimp. They really love this one. Soon after I start the minced talipia, and if they are'nt put into bigger surroundings, they start biting each other in the nape region!


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## Piranha Guy (Oct 22, 2003)




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## gasman (Jan 1, 2004)

hi all

these piranhas were bought by me.

they were 1 inch long when i got them from the waterzoo in peterborough.
they were £5 each and the guy assured me that they had just come in and were 4-8 weeks old.
i sold these to a friend a couple of months back.(hrprvilla)

when i moved them to his house it wasnt long after they started breeding,in fact ive seen his tank and it looks like a mine field!! it looks like all 6 have paired up!.

i think the term BULLSHIT is a bit harsh.

he was just stating a fact that he had been told(around 8 months old)
you could say are you sure?or have you got your facts right!
he isnt a liar,just stating what he know to be true!!

now you could ask me the age and i would say exactly the same,after all they were my fish from a very small size.
now i know that you can have a 5 month old piranha at 2 inches,in fact if you look in some local shops some are older,stressed,bad water,small tank,very little feeding ect.
i didnt want this kind a piranha which is why i chose the ones from the waterzoo.

all-though i have to admit for red bellies these were very strange,they were much bolder than any ive had before,eating massive amounts every time and were not skittish!! ive had members from the pirnaha club in the uk see them and they were shocked how bold they were,also they had no red bellies until i sold them ,( 6 months old) after i had them for a month they packed on around a inch a month until i sold them due to my adult piranhas breeding.

has anyone had red bellies that are very bold(do not move at all!!)
eats huge amounts light on or off.
no red on their bellies until they were around 6 inches.
and in a 55 gallon tank all breed at the same time pairing up in 3 groups??
and still are laying eggs 6-8 weeks on.

as for their age its impossible to say. again i can only go on the age i was told when i bought them and what age they looked like to me .

all i can say is congrats to *hrprvilla* and his many many many fry!!


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