Once youвЂ™ve got your aquarium all set you can move on to buying your red bellies (weвЂ™re assuming you know the basics of fishkeeping if youвЂ™re interested in such a challenging species, so we wonвЂ™t get into stuff like cycling here). Overfiltration is a must most piranha keepers prefer to run multiple canister filters or other powerful filter types on their tank to keep their water values in check. We prefer our piranha tanks with only piranhas, because although adults arenвЂ™t particularly voracious tankmates are still at risk of being damaged.Д«ecause piranhas are incredibly messy eaters, youвЂ™ll have to pay attention to proper filtration in order to prevent water quality issues. Live plants will often be eaten or destroyed eventually, so you could consider faux ones if you still want some green in your piranha set-up. A small aquarium results in stunted growth and miserable fish.Дecor is not much of a concern, although anything you choose should be sturdy. Although some sources mention a minimum tank size as small as 55 gallons, youвЂ™ll actually realistically be looking at something of 200 gallons or preferably more. These fish naturally reach a size of up to 12вЂќ and should be kept in groups. If youвЂ™re interested in keeping piranhas, youвЂ™ll have to make room for a very large aquarium. Unfortunately, this often results in improper care and bad housing, as piranhas are actually not too easy to keep and need a lot of space. Piranha aquariumД«ecause of their reputation, piranhas are an easy impulse buy for those who just want to own a вЂcoolвЂ™ fish. Situations where they вЂstrip live animalsвЂ™ bones of flesh within minutesвЂ™ are almost always the result of human intervention and donвЂ™t occur naturally. While piranhas are carnivores that will certainly react intensely to food in states of extreme hunger, they usually go for easy prey such as weak fish or animals that have already deceased.

Piranha reputationДЄre red-bellied piranhas (Pygocentrus nattereri) really the voracious predators theyвЂ™re made out to be? This species attracts the attention of many aquarists who like the idea of keeping a dangerous fish species, not realizing that much of the piranhaвЂ™s reputation is sensationalized. Keep reading for all the basics you need to be aware of if you want to keep the вЂfearsomeвЂ™ red-bellied piranha in your own aquarium. Just keep in mind that these fish are more than flesh eating predators, and they have special requirements like any species. A school of these red-bellied, silver-shimmering carnivores with their intense reputation is quite a sight to see. Piranha Keeping for Beginners вЂ“ The Basics Thinking of getting into piranha keeping? We get it.

Piranha fish