This is my aquarium, before I added the P's!
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New Piranha Fish Keeper!
Good day everyone,
After a couple of years in the hobby I have finally decided to try out rbp's! I just moved across country so it was a perfect time to start something new!
My current setup is a Fluval profile 1200 aquarium (it's one of those fancy pre drilled aquariums about 90 gallons) I'm running a 406 canister filter filled with the sponges and 4 baskets of marine pur bio media and some floss. I have decided to leave out carbon for now. I also have a "beefy" hydor powerhead keeping the surface agitated and for some water movement of corse. I went for a simple, yet visually pleasing scape, I have some nice pieces of manzanita driftwood, went with the caribsea blue ridge aquarium gravel and some locally sourced rocks (boiled them of corse) and for a background i used frosted privacy film, It almost looked like a dead, haunted theme. I run a fluval aquasky LED light, which i keep rather dim and only keep it on for viewing purposes.
So I have 5 juv rbp's right now they are about 1-1.5inches (don't have red bellies yet), I have had them for less than a week, at first they were very stressed however the last few days they have been great, swimming very actively, using the full tank, for feeding I use frozen haddock fillets, I cut a piece each day and just toss it in, within seconds they start ripping into it, very awesome to watch! this method of feeding was recomonded by my local fish store which by the way I'm on the east coast of Canada (Halifax area) and shop at 1fish 2fish!! anyone who follows KING OF DIY will know the store in fact my P's are one of his more recent video, I was there at the store when he shot his latest video there! Anyway great store! They suggested this method of eating to limit any sort of fin nipping and also to keep them on a healthy diet.
My daily maintenance includes a little 15% water change and a dose of seachem prime and stability (since my tank is still "new")
I have actually creeped this forums for information and seems to be some great info and people here! most of my fish keeping experience is with African cichlids, so this is defiantly a whole new experience for me. I know long term 5 in a 90 gallon is too much and will most likely re home 1 when that time comes. but for the meantime they have lots of space to grow!
If anyone has any sort of advice, suggestions or anyway I can make my experience with P's better please don't hesitate to let me know!
Cheers!
After a couple of years in the hobby I have finally decided to try out rbp's! I just moved across country so it was a perfect time to start something new!
My current setup is a Fluval profile 1200 aquarium (it's one of those fancy pre drilled aquariums about 90 gallons) I'm running a 406 canister filter filled with the sponges and 4 baskets of marine pur bio media and some floss. I have decided to leave out carbon for now. I also have a "beefy" hydor powerhead keeping the surface agitated and for some water movement of corse. I went for a simple, yet visually pleasing scape, I have some nice pieces of manzanita driftwood, went with the caribsea blue ridge aquarium gravel and some locally sourced rocks (boiled them of corse) and for a background i used frosted privacy film, It almost looked like a dead, haunted theme. I run a fluval aquasky LED light, which i keep rather dim and only keep it on for viewing purposes.
So I have 5 juv rbp's right now they are about 1-1.5inches (don't have red bellies yet), I have had them for less than a week, at first they were very stressed however the last few days they have been great, swimming very actively, using the full tank, for feeding I use frozen haddock fillets, I cut a piece each day and just toss it in, within seconds they start ripping into it, very awesome to watch! this method of feeding was recomonded by my local fish store which by the way I'm on the east coast of Canada (Halifax area) and shop at 1fish 2fish!! anyone who follows KING OF DIY will know the store in fact my P's are one of his more recent video, I was there at the store when he shot his latest video there! Anyway great store! They suggested this method of eating to limit any sort of fin nipping and also to keep them on a healthy diet.
My daily maintenance includes a little 15% water change and a dose of seachem prime and stability (since my tank is still "new")
I have actually creeped this forums for information and seems to be some great info and people here! most of my fish keeping experience is with African cichlids, so this is defiantly a whole new experience for me. I know long term 5 in a 90 gallon is too much and will most likely re home 1 when that time comes. but for the meantime they have lots of space to grow!
If anyone has any sort of advice, suggestions or anyway I can make my experience with P's better please don't hesitate to let me know!
Cheers!
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
Welcome to the forum, if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Sounds like you have done your research, only thing I could suggest is skipping daily water changes... at this point its more work than necessary. Get a good test kit and find a weekly or bi-weekly percentage that works to keep things in check. With enough filtration, a 30 or 40% change every other week should be fine. Also try to incorporate other things into the diet, including pellets and occasionally fattier things like salmon, beef heart etc.
Sounds like you have done your research, only thing I could suggest is skipping daily water changes... at this point its more work than necessary. Get a good test kit and find a weekly or bi-weekly percentage that works to keep things in check. With enough filtration, a 30 or 40% change every other week should be fine. Also try to incorporate other things into the diet, including pellets and occasionally fattier things like salmon, beef heart etc.
Thanks! It looks pretty dead around here these days! But the information is still good!
I was only doing the daily wc just because my tank is still newly setup I actually set up and tried out the ATM colony and had 9 fancy goldfish in there. One died randomly but I'm not surprised since they were a) cheap gold fish and b) bought from petsmart anyhow that definitely kick started my cycle but after seeing the P´s I had a change of heart!
I will also try and incorporate some other foods aswell, Couple questions on that, what would be a good pellet for them? Sinking or floating? At the moment they are still very young mind you. I know many people feed live fish and that's sort of the whole thrill of having piranhas however I don't want to introduce live fish for the obvious reasons of disease ect...
I was only doing the daily wc just because my tank is still newly setup I actually set up and tried out the ATM colony and had 9 fancy goldfish in there. One died randomly but I'm not surprised since they were a) cheap gold fish and b) bought from petsmart anyhow that definitely kick started my cycle but after seeing the P´s I had a change of heart!
I will also try and incorporate some other foods aswell, Couple questions on that, what would be a good pellet for them? Sinking or floating? At the moment they are still very young mind you. I know many people feed live fish and that's sort of the whole thrill of having piranhas however I don't want to introduce live fish for the obvious reasons of disease ect...
Not a lot of talking, but all the information you could need. People are always here to answer questions
If you used fish from petsmart theres a good chance they were carrying ICH, I would treat the tank before introducing your new fish if possible. Also, using a copper based treatment will likely kill off your bacteria and cycle, so you could be starting from square one. In the future, use a piece of raw shrimp and some previously cycled media.
As for pellets, theres a few good options. I have always used the Hikari pellets in the red bag... it might take some time to get them to feed off the surface but, worth it in the long run.
If you used fish from petsmart theres a good chance they were carrying ICH, I would treat the tank before introducing your new fish if possible. Also, using a copper based treatment will likely kill off your bacteria and cycle, so you could be starting from square one. In the future, use a piece of raw shrimp and some previously cycled media.
As for pellets, theres a few good options. I have always used the Hikari pellets in the red bag... it might take some time to get them to feed off the surface but, worth it in the long run.
Yeah I know I didn't cycle everything properly, I'm usually good at doing it all properly but I was little sad that I had shut down my tank and move and after sitting and staring at a empty tank I couldn't resist the urge! I took the risk, my fish seem very healthy and happy, they are not even very skittish, and feed almost instantly when I throw in some fish. I'm lucky I have a very good fish store here they have great knowledge and support. I'm closely monitoring my fish, keeping my fingers crossed! I will try out the hikari "meat" sticks thanks for the help!
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
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