Any official research on Piranha's?

[duffer]

I've owned this beautiful species for almost 20 years now, and STILL have a truckload of unanswered questions. The problem is, most marine research is conducted in CA where the fish is outlawed. :rolleyes:

Googling and Ask dot com give some anecdotal sites, but nothing comprehensive. Surely some government in So America has spent some cash on studying them. *cross fingers*

What I'm looking for to begin with are things like breeding habits, differences in captive vs. wild fish and the like. Also, I can't find anything giving a life expectancy. I've always had grown or almost-grown fish before, but now have 4 that were about quarter-size when I bought them. As in, very young.

Any help would be appreciated.

And to entertain you for reading this, I'll link to a site I found that gave some info but didn't really answer my questions. (You'll have to get to the Piranha's from here because I want to show one more reason catfish are ugly) ;)

http://www.junglephotos.com/animals/fishes/catfish.html

Oh, ok, here's the original link. (I own red-bellies BTW)

http://www.junglephotos.com/animals/fishes/piranhas.html

[HeyHomie]

What do you feed them? I've heard dog food is OK if you get skeevy about the idea of giving them live "feeder" fish.

Also - when you open the tank for cleaning & whatnot, is there a danger of them jumping out? (I heard that somewhere).

[duffer]

What do you feed them? I've heard dog food is OK if you get skeevy about the idea of giving them live "feeder" fish.

Also - when you open the tank for cleaning & whatnot, is there a danger of them jumping out? (I heard that somewhere).

Well, they're about 3" right now. When I got them I fed them tropical flake for about a month, and now have them on brine shrimp. I bought 6 small guppies 2 weeks ago, but they are either too young for them or the guppies are too small to be seen hiding in the "weeds". So the shrimp will have to do for at least another month, while the cursed guppies enjoy the delicacy. :mad:

The adults I had were fed feeder goldfish (the 25 cent per ones) as this is closest to what they eat in the wild. As far as dog food, ground beef, etc. I've found them horrible substitutes as they add too much grease/oil to the water. In a desperate pinch I fed frozen shrimp (human kind, not brine, and thawed), but that just created more cleaning work.

As far as jumping, this can become a problem if they are "food-aggressive". I've never had one actually jump out of the tank, but even the babies I have now will break the surface when the door is opened the second time as they've learned the 2nd opening is food time.

Also, my last fish were trained so well that I could hold a goldfish by the tail and they would one-by-one swim to the surface to take it. (NOTE: I was drunk while doing this, DO NOT attempt if you like having 10 fingers. I got lucky) ;) Though they never really came close to flopping out of the tank.

[pool]

How big is the tank you keep them in? j\w

[duffer]

How big is the tank you keep them in? j\w

75 gallons for now, will go to 125 or bigger in a year or so when they become adults.

[mangeorge]

Oscars will jump out of the tank. Oscars will also eat small piranhas. And fingers.
There are piranha clubs. Not for smacking the fish, but groups of fans of the fish.
Also, there was a guy on PBS who did extensive research on them. He also ate them. :p
Peace,
mangeorge

[hightechburrito]

http://www.predatoryfish.net

This is a message board that is dedicated to predatory fish, and there is a section just for piranhas.

[Apricot]

The Aquarium in Stanley Park in Vancouver BC has piranhas. http://www.vanaqua.org/education/aquafacts/amazon.html
They were very boring to watch, motionlessly staying in school formation. Could've been replaced by cardboard cut outs.