# What fish can get along with baby Red Belly Piranha's?



## magicprincess707 (Aug 18, 2005)

Hi everyone! My boyfriend just got me a 180 gallon acrylic tank as an earlyer bithday present and I'm anxious to move my piranha's into it. I currently have 5 baby red bellies (ranging from 1 1/2 inches to 3 inches big) and they are in an 18 gallon. I have already started to cycle my new tank with a bunch of gold fish. I was just wondering what other fish I can put in the 180 gallon tank that would get along with my piranhas. I have seen pictures of people who keep oscars with their piranhas and such... anyone have any suggestions? Please let me know, because I'd hate to only have the 5 piranhas in such a huge tank...


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## MR HARLEY (Aug 12, 2003)

about 4 more little reds of the same size ...


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## magicprincess707 (Aug 18, 2005)

I'm looking to get different typs of fish... not just a tank full of Piranhas... lol...


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## MR HARLEY (Aug 12, 2003)

magicprincess707 said:


> I'm looking to get different typs of fish... not just a tank full of Piranhas... lol...


Well then your gonna have some nice fat p's and some wasted money .


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## The Predator (Sep 28, 2005)

not even a pleco is safe. I hear exos work.


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## Fry (Oct 9, 2005)

read siganture!lol


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## Basch (Oct 6, 2005)

Goldfish will work for a few seconds









I'm still amazed that people want to mix different animals in one care when one of 'm is a predator. Same on reptile forums: what can I house with my minotor/kingsnake/etc, that question comes almost as often as: I have a small empty tank, what can I house in it?


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## jaejae (Apr 16, 2005)

magicprincess707 said:


> Hi everyone! My boyfriend just got me a 180 gallon acrylic tank as an earlyer bithday present and I'm anxious to move my piranha's into it. I currently have 5 baby red bellies (ranging from 1 1/2 inches to 3 inches big) and they are in an 18 gallon. I have already started to cycle my new tank with a bunch of gold fish. I was just wondering what other fish I can put in the 180 gallon tank that would get along with my piranhas. I have seen pictures of people who keep oscars with their piranhas and such... anyone have any suggestions? Please let me know, because I'd hate to only have the 5 piranhas in such a huge tank...


Hi there,

You will see that the consensus among most of the hobbyists on the site is a big "NO". You can't keep any other species with your piranhas. They will do what nature intended them to do and that is kill and eat the other fish! Please don't experiment with oscars or other cichlids either. IT WON'T WORK!
If you want a community tank I suggest you think long and hard and then, if it's really what you want, sell your RBPs.

Anyway goodluck


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## Zippy (Sep 15, 2005)

jaejae said:


> Hi everyone! My boyfriend just got me a 180 gallon acrylic tank as an earlyer bithday present and I'm anxious to move my piranha's into it. I currently have 5 baby red bellies (ranging from 1 1/2 inches to 3 inches big) and they are in an 18 gallon. I have already started to cycle my new tank with a bunch of gold fish. I was just wondering what other fish I can put in the 180 gallon tank that would get along with my piranhas. I have seen pictures of people who keep oscars with their piranhas and such... anyone have any suggestions? Please let me know, because I'd hate to only have the 5 piranhas in such a huge tank...


Hi there,

You will see that the consensus among most of the hobbyists on the site is a big "NO". You can't keep any other species with your piranhas. They will do what nature intended them to do and that is kill and eat the other fish! Please don't experiment with oscars or other cichlids either. IT WON'T WORK!
If you want a community tank I suggest you think long and hard and then, if it's really what you want, sell your RBPs.

Anyway goodluck
[/quote]
Well said. I think you need to decide on weather or not you want a community tank or a P tank.

You don't have to have just red bellies - you can add some Piraya, caribe or Ternetzi. This would make the tank more interesting and better quality imo.


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## magicprincess707 (Aug 18, 2005)

so my best bet is to stick with other types of piranhas? What about other types of agressive and semi-agressive fish? I read on another posting on here that you can keep agressive and semi-aggressive fish together with other aggressive fish... I love my red bellies so much and they are my main priority for this tank... so there is no way I'm going to sell them...


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## AnKleBiTR (Mar 31, 2005)

magicprincess707 said:


> so my best bet is to stick with other types of piranhas? What about other types of agressive and semi-agressive fish? I read on another posting on here that you can keep agressive and semi-aggressive fish together with other aggressive fish... I love my red bellies so much and they are my main priority for this tank... so there is no way I'm going to sell them...


The issue you may run into with other aggressive or semi-aggressive species is that they "mess with the wrong guy". For instance, an Oscar or other Cichlid may try to stake a territory and act aggressively towards a P. The P will eat the other fish, or possibly just disfigure it. Generally, as was stated before, when you keep P's in a tank, anything else you throw in will just be food. It may not happen immediately, but eventually everything gets eaten. Raphael catfish or Exodons have the best chance of success in not being killed. The catfish hides during the day and the Exos are fast. I hope that answers your questions.

Welcome to the board, btw.


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## chains01 (Oct 9, 2005)

Another thing you might think is if you try housing cichlids with your p's, "Well, getting a cichlid bigger than my p's will make the cichlid safe." The only truth in this is that your cichlid is safe, but not necessarily your p's. Trust me, I tried it with an Oscar and three p's, over the first week after I threw the Oscar in there, I woke up on two seperate occassions to walk in there and find the remains of my p's on the floor of the tank, and my Oscar with bad indegestion. He killed the other one a week later.


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## MR HARLEY (Aug 12, 2003)

Winston Wolf said:


> Another thing you might think is if you try housing cichlids with your p's, "Well, getting a cichlid bigger than my p's will make the cichlid safe." The only truth in this is that your cichlid is safe, but not necessarily your p's. Trust me, I tried it with an Oscar and three p's, over the first week after I threw the Oscar in there, I woke up on two seperate occassions to walk in there and find the remains of my p's on the floor of the tank, and my Oscar with bad indegestion. He killed the other one a week later.


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## magicprincess707 (Aug 18, 2005)

sorry to hear about your P's getting eaten... that was my concern about oscars too... my bf had the chance to get a pair of huge oscars and we ended up not getting them because of fear that they would eat my baby piranhas... thanks for all the advise though... i think I'll just save up and get some different kinds of Ps for the tank... and maybe that catfish someone mentioned above...


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## metalflakegold (Jul 22, 2005)

I have a 125 gallon with 4 reds and 3 tiger barbs. The tiger barbs were the original fish in the aquarium and I introduced baby reds about the size of dimes. Barbs never bothered the reds. After a few months and the piranhas drastically overtaking the barbs in size, 1 barb disappeared. I'm assuming a piranha ate him. The barbs and p's seem like good tank mates for now. The barbs swim very close to the p's and actually all hide out under a piece of drift wood together. My P's are about 3-4 inches and 4 months old. The barbs are less than 1 inch.


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## furious piranha (Mar 22, 2005)

i keep an oscar wit my ps..just get it at a size bigger thatn the ps but small enuf that he cant eat them


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## mylesc99 (Sep 5, 2005)

I don't recommend an Oscar, because they are dirty fish, and they will drive your ammonia levels way up! Pedro is going to be getting in some two inch Caribe's next Thursday. I recommend you buy some two inch Caribe's and throw them in the tank with your red-bellies. The Caribe's will give them some competition for food, and they will become more aggresive, and eat more. This in turn, will make them grow faster.


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## piranha1991 (Sep 17, 2005)

i dont know why ppl say it cant be done i have done it lost of times but right now i only have a red tail shark and a common pleco living with my p's they are doing very well.


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## faebo_tarzan (Jun 5, 2005)

You can always try to stick some fast reproducing fish in there and some or all will get eaten. But theres a chance that they some will survive and reproduce. Ive had guppies for 10 months now and they are more than ever. Good luck








and btw always have them fell fed.


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## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

I would suggest adding
P. cariba
P. piraya
or ternetzi, for a little variety, have a few different pygo sopecies together...


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## Uncle Rico (Sep 4, 2005)

If you don't mind the risk of losing them after a few months you could get some clown loaches. My apartmentmate had added clown loaches several months ago to his red belly tank when the red bellies were 1 inch. The reds are 4 inches now, and the clown loaches and reds still get along, in fact the clowns aren't even scared of them yet and chase the reds during feeding time. But I'm just waiting for the time bomb to go off because piranhas are kind of like people with mental disorders, they could be totally fine for a while then something will click and they will go on a rampage. So this might be good as long as you don't grow too attached to the clowns. They most likely won't get eaten by the 1 inchers, I'm doing the same thing in my tank and my p's are now 2.5 inches and then clowns are fine. But then again each case is different, its possible the clowns get eaten before the ps reach 2.5 inches. Good luck!


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## Fry (Oct 9, 2005)

I had luck in the past with 2 Raphael Catfish (nocturnal)..but be carefull that they are not too big for yer babies cause he will eat them while they are sleeping.Make sure they have a good hide out from the p's during the day though!
Had a pleco too. He had 2 good nips taken out of him though but he survived(while I had him).


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## jiggy (Jun 27, 2004)

i would suggest addding a blue whale


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## scent troll (Apr 4, 2005)

in MY experience. i have succesfully kept LARGE plecostomus with 6 adult reds. successfuly kept a hoplias mala. with 6 adult reds, and successfuly kept 2 adult oscar with 4 adult reds. 
the trick? LOTS of space. and i mean LOTS. and a very very good diet with absolutely no periods of fasting in between feedings. red bellys, even though they can coexist with other fish, can and will hunt. and in a pack they will take down anything they can get a hold of. other reds included


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## nick007x (Sep 9, 2005)

magicprincess707 said:


> sorry to hear about your P's getting eaten... that was my concern about oscars too... my bf had the chance to get a pair of huge oscars and we ended up not getting them because of fear that they would eat my baby piranhas... thanks for all the advise though... i think I'll just save up and get some different kinds of Ps for the tank... and maybe that catfish someone mentioned above...


just make sure you get some type of pygo, and not a serra.

and as far as what other people have said, what fish have lived with their piranha's, i can't say it better than elTwitcho:

"What can I keep with my piranhas?"

Since this is a question that comes up every day, every week, every month I thought it should be addressed once and for all. This goes for red bellied piranhas, cariba, spilos, rhoms, elongs, macs, irritans, brandtiis, mannys and every other piranha in between. It doesn't matter if it's a serra, a shoaling species, a solitary species, it seems to be pretty much the same across the board. The following is a comprehensive and 100% complete list of the things you can keep with piranhas and have complete success.

Rocks

Driftwood

Plants

And that is IT. Nothing else, nadda, zilch, zero. Every other thing you try and keep with your piranhas is going to run the risk of getting eaten. This is not to say everything will get eaten 100%, there are fish that are more likely to survive, and fish that will not survive. I've broken them into lists

FISH THAT WILL NOT SURVIVE

Large Aggressive Cichlids - These include but are not limmited to, flowerhorns, Green Terrors, Midas, Trimacs, Red Devil, Dovii, Texas Cichlids and fish of similar size and temperament. The problem with these fish is that they will almost always try and fight your piranha, and wether they win or lose is not the issue here. If they fight it's important to remember that piranhas have big sharp teeth, either it will kill the cichlid, or the cichlid will kill the piranha in self defence.

Medium sized peaceful fish - Any fish that is not significantly bigger than the piranhas that do not have any fighting ability whatsoever will get eaten eventually.

Crayfish - I know of very few people who've ever gotten a crayfish to coexist with piranhas. It is my experience and that of a number of other people that the crayfish will attack your piranhas and then usually it will get eaten.

FISH THAT MIGHT KIND OF WORK FOR A LITTLE BIT

Plecos - Plecos are fifty fifty. Some people have them in their tanks just fine, some people have them eaten the moment they hit the water.

Small Fast fish - Fish like Tetras, Tiger Barbs, Giant Danios are quick enough that they can survive for a little bit, but generally they get caught and they get eaten. Some members report that since their fish is big enough it will ignore the smaller fish entirely. Maybe this will work for you, maybe it won't.

Oscars - There's an awful lot of people that have piranhas that flat out ate their Oscar. There are a SMALL FEW that have piranhas that coexist with their piranhas. If you care about the Oscar at all you will not put it in with your piranhas as in MOST CASES they get eaten. Alot of members who've kept their Oscars with piranhas later found the Oscar eaten or missing an eye. I don't care what you saw in the mouse feeding video, this will NOT work long term and will only MAYBE work in the short run.

FISH THAT HAVE THE HIGHEST CHANCE OF WORKING

Raphael Catfish - They come out at night, piranhas come out during the day.

Exodons - They're pretty quick that piranhas oftentimes won't chase them. If they do chase them though, they'll get eaten. This is still a fish that is likely to get eaten, it is just less likely than the others. Don't add them to your piranha tank unless you're prepared to have them go missing because even though some members have exodons living with piranhas for a little while, many members have failed in trying to introduce exodons to piranha tanks.

THE DISCLAIMER

There is NOTHING alive that will work with your piranhas forever. Even the fish that are most likely to survive have a low rate of survival, probably less than 50% make it past the first month. Do not add fish to your piranha tank expecting them to survive because they won't. Maybe for a little while, probably not for a year but it's possible, but eventually you'll have dead fish to contend with.


its pinned


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## mylesc99 (Sep 5, 2005)

Well said...


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## noslen_ (Oct 20, 2004)

I dont think you can introduce new fish now.

My 3 reds grew up with 3 convicts and 1 pleco for the last year.

2 convicts died and so did 1 red. The rest of them seem to be living together for now, who knows if the last convict will go when theres not gonna be enough sace.

From my opinion and research.. plecos are the best bet and strong aggressive fish likes cichlids (convits and oscars yet the oscars might be the last ones standing!)

hope this helps!
~nelson


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## chains01 (Oct 9, 2005)

I wouldn't even trust strong aggressive fish, they'll all die in a fight together. You need super fast fish in a huge tank, but there's still nothing saying that the piranhas won't out smart them at some point, after all they are super smart fuckers!


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## Powder (Nov 24, 2004)

magicprincess707 said:


> sorry to hear about your P's getting eaten... that was my concern about oscars too... my bf had the chance to get a pair of huge oscars and we ended up not getting them because of fear that they would eat my baby piranhas... thanks for all the advise though... i think I'll just save up and get some different kinds of Ps for the tank... and maybe that catfish someone mentioned above...


the only prob here is with gettin a different kind of piranha if you want any sucess you have to stay in the pygocentrus ( sp?) group or species family i dont really know the classifications
either way a piraya or caribe or ternetzi and those are the safest bet but still with the possibility of murder in the 180 caribe and piraya tend to be a bit more aggressive but if you were gonna do more than just reds those would be the ones to use any serrasalmus will most likely go ape sh*t at some point and kill everything that moves besides himself 
you could try the caribe terns or piraya but like i said be warned you may still lose fish 
hope this helps have a good day


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## magicprincess707 (Aug 18, 2005)

well, i done a ton of reading about thing and I have decided to get a school of green tiger barbs and regular tiger barbs (8 total... they are about 1/2 inch each)... a pleco (about 4 inches long) and a few feeder fish (several small and a few large ones)... I had all the fish in the 180 gallon tank first... and after a few days I introduced my 5 Ps to the tank... the results were fairly good so far... the P's ate all the small feeders (the large feeders are still doing good.) The Ps like chasing the tiger barbs, but they haven't caught any of them yet (although 3 of the tiger barbs got sucked up into the over flow and died in there because they are so tiny)... The pleco is fine and not being disturbed at all...


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## Powder (Nov 24, 2004)

i hate to tell ya this but in the end everything will end up dead except for your p's there is a entire forum on here about mixing speices called piranha aquario check there and you will see that a large percentege end up with just the piranha left some dont but that only means it hasnt been long enough i had at one point 6 red bellies and now i have 2 i mean they eat thier own kind whats gonna stop them from eating anything that crosses thier path 
but i do wish ya the best of luck 
just remember your taking a risk of losig those fish but they are your to do what you choose i can only lend my knowledge and assistance 
and am more than happy to do so at anytime 
best of luck 
john


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## Exodon_Tetra (May 10, 2005)

Are you people insane saying Exos work? Exos are just small fishes to piranhas. They are like any other small fish. How the hell can a piranha tell a difference between an Exo and another fish similar in size. Yea, right, put Exos in and watch them get eaten like feeders.

Don't believe me? Go for it and see what happens.


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## kuulaaid (Oct 2, 2005)

I had a pacu in with my 4 rbp and they were one big happy family. It almost seemed as if the pacu ran the tank for the most part. HOWEVER, I think the major factor was, my pacu was in the tank for about a month and a half before I got my rbp. And when I got the rbp they were only 1". I was concerned at first that the pacu would eat them so I kept them divided until they grew to about 2". From then on they got along as if it was meant to be. I think if you put rbp's in the tank first, they will feel more dominate of their territory and more likely to attack any additions.


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## Powder (Nov 24, 2004)

it doesnt really matter what or when it was put in the tank 
they will and DO EAT THIER OWN KIND they obviously dont care what kind of fish it is if you put any live fish in with a piranha it has a chance of getting eaten and one more time for good measure read this 
http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?showtopic=60939
it is the be all end all of what you can 100 % safely keep with a piranha 
please people dont kill fish u want as pets to see if you can defy nature


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## jason k (Oct 6, 2005)

when they get a little bigger you can put sunfish or any other fish that is almost the same size and body shape
piranhas dont realy have that good of eye sight 
(and keep them feed!!!!) or it wont work
but if that fish gets sick or hurt he will be gone in a matter of days
that goes for all the fish in the tank even your piranhas
but thats just me and
iv been wrong before


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## alan (Mar 11, 2004)

MR HARLEY said:


> I'm looking to get different typs of fish... not just a tank full of Piranhas... lol...


Well then your gonna have some nice fat p's and some wasted money .
[/quote]


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