d3r

so I have a 120gal fish tank with Piranha in it. it housed a large common pleco aswell through 4years that kept the tank glass spotless. unfortunately Pleco mustve gotten too close to the danger zone a few months back and he ended up as a meal... without a pleco in there the tank quickly builds up algae on the glass because it is in front of a main window. I'm constantly cleaning the glass so my question is; Can I scrape off some of the algae from the big tank and put it in my shrimp tank for them to eat? id hate to be throwing away free food!

Basically want to try shrimp again but dont want to spend a lot of money on high grade shrimps at first until i know they will do well. I have a different tank, different set up, and different water source so hopefully this time around goes better. Looking for around 20 cherrys at somewhat of a deal.. color quality doesnt matter. Thanks!

Heres a long overdue update on my baby rhom grow out..pushin 2.5" now haha

You are correct soothing! If it was only 2 male piranha in a tank they would most likely go at eachother until there was only 1 left. However if theres several piranha it spreads the aggression and youre much less likely to lose one. They shoal together when theres a threat (me cleaning the tank) but otherwise they all have their spots in the tank and dont mess with eachother much..just a nip here and there to say "this is MY spot...move it along" haha

Louie- they spawned in the school...i have 2.5 pairs... I say the .5 because i have 2 that always do the spawning behavior but no eggs ever come of it..i often wonder if they're both male hahah. They do protect the eggs. One (usually the male) hovers over top and fans them and the other (usually the female) will patrol 1-2feet away stopping any other fish from coming near. Its kinda funny considering they eat their own babies when they hatch though xD so protective over the eggs but eat the fry. I haven't grown any babies out in a while but the last time they attacked my siphon n put a bunch of holes in it when i was sucking the eggs out hahah. Shrimpworks, ill try to get a video of my little black piranha eating and post it up soon. N yep piranha and car guy! I have a 1979 Camaro with a little rumpity-rump, a 1975 Nova with a lot of rumpity-rump and a 1957 chevy to cruise in haha.

Thanks a lot vpier... im going to look into those links. See if i can get myself over there asap! Hey shrimpworks, i have a pretty cool video of 100+ baby piranha in a feeding frenzy from when i used to breed them..ill post that in a sec. Piranha are legal in most of the northern states.. most of the southern states have them banned. Some states in between allow you to own them but you must apply for a permit. They take forever to grow in relation to the redbelly piranha...a redbelly will grow to 6"+ in 6momths. Where as ive had a baby black piranha for almost 9 months and its only 3"+

How much does a trip like that cost? (If you dont mind me asking) im really interested in making the trip one day.

Yea they grow really slow in captivity. The trick is to get a big one out of the river and have it imported. They live between 8-12yrs in aquariums so its a bit of roulette selling and buying a piranha that big because like you said- its taken many years to reach that size. In my opinion there is no fish more visually striking than a huuuge (18") black piranha. ^i always wanted to go on a fishing trip on the amazon...id want to take every catch home with me though!

I wonder how many employees work there to run maintenance on all those set ups!

Yep Serrasalmus Rhombeus (Black piranha) Come in many variants depending on local/genes. You can catch one at one point, then go 10miles up river and catch another and they may look amazingly different. They generally all have the same shape but come in several sizes, colors and personality. 12" is decent size but they grow much larger than that..few people have 18"+ costing $1200+ Its a shame people cant be responsible and states have to ban them (i fully agree with the states decision) but they are fascinating fish.

^Where is "here"? Both red bellies and pacu will cause havoc on an ecosystem they're not naturally found in so its cause for concern eitherway...people are just more afraid of physical damage to themselves from piranha. How big was your friends? I have a serrasalmus rhombeus aka black piranha aka red eye piranha in a 55gal growing out right now.. they take forrreeeeeeever to grow but if he gets big enough i may put him in a 120gal for life. Hes probably 3inches now..had him since he was the size of a dime haha.

^ thanks. They do fin nip eachother occasionally but there is a hierarchy within the shoal and they all seem to know their place and stay in line. Ive been fortunate to not have lost any to cannibalism yet..especially since mine are much more aggro than your average redbellys. However i did lose my 13" pleco yesterday though. He had been in there for 3yrs with em but got too close to the dominant piranha lastnight and fatally paid for it.

I think it looks good.

after losing all my high grade shrimp I went to a local fish store and bought 10 low grade cherrys to work out the kinks.. ive had success with them as i have some babies in the tank now. I never did pinpoint what the problem was but I believe I had my temp too high (near 80) when I made my original purchase from you so it may have weakened them and introduced some sort of infection. I bookmarked your site to make another purchase when I was more experienced but never got around to it hahah busy busy.