Adding piranhas to piranhas

[dracosmom]

Hello,

I have a 100 gallon tank with 3 red belly piranhas and I am getting 6 more. Mine are about 8 inches and the new ones are between 4 and 6 inches. Do you think they will get along?

thanks
Kris

 

[viewofthebay]

You have to feed them heavy to prevent them from killing each other. The little one is the one you have to look out for. You may want to change the rock and wood around to change their territory position before putting in the new ones. Good Luck.

 

[dracosmom]

thanks me friend

 

[dlobom]

Might work because the aggression will be distributed between that many

 

[ballinouttacntrol]

i think your size difference is fine. i don't know your tank set up but i'd feed your current piranhas, change the tank around as much as you can, add new piranhas, chase old and new piranhas around with a net and watch them be best friends from there on out

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

i think your size difference is fine. i don't know your tank set up but i'd feed your current piranhas, change the tank around as much as you can, add new piranhas, chase old and new piranhas around with a net and watch them be best friends from there on out

yep


you want to break apart any established heirarchy in the piranha shoal and any established territories. By rearanging the tank you basicaly make the older piranhas think they are also in a new tank. Doing a water change before adding them and also slowly dropping the temp of the tank a few degrees prior to the addition can also reduce agression to the newer piranhas. Then after everything is established you cna bring the temp back up to your usual.

 

[ballinouttacntrol]

of course let us know if that method didn't work for you but it's worked for me. i wasn't adding as large a number of piranhas as you though. just one for me

 

[duster1971]

i always use a divider for a few weeks or so that way when you remove it the new fish and old fish havnt seen the other side of the tank then when you chase them around it all seems so new to them they dont realize there are others in with them. its always a good idea to feed heavy beforhand.

 

[dracosmom]

so it is day two, and everything is going perfect. we lower the temp to 75 80, and both groups got feed twice the amount of fish as normally. the big ones dont seem much to care about the little ones and the little ones just run away when the big ones swim by.

so the count in the tank is 9 pirahnas, i will post pictures soon.

 

[brich999]

what i found with piranhas, if i take mine out and put them im a big bucket for a few hrs and introduce new fish, eeryone gets along. if i try to add fish, never works. i had mine eat a 16 inch pleco that barely hit the water, but they live comfortably along with a 6 inch and 17 inch with no problems