MORE Q's on piranha's READ PLEASE!! re: CLOUDY TANK

:m16:

what is the ideal temp for 2 red belly's ? (babys)

they dont like the light much do they??

is it normal for 2 babys to eat 5 feeder fish in 3 hours just after we buy them?
and if u have any tips about aquarium decor for them let me know!!

:m17:
thanks
shelly

 

hey babydoll,

so the ideal temperature for Red bellies is around 75-78 degrees farenheight. i keep mine at like 76 and my two babies seem very happy.

my pirhanas have adjusted to having me around.. they used to be scared of me hiding in the corners at the very sight of me.. (man, and i thought i was good looking!)... but yah.. now the onyl thing they're afriad of is bright light...

i'm going to go buy some cellophane and cover the light to dim the fluroescent hood lamp and hopefully will get them more used to having light in the tank.

with regards to feeder fish... how big are the fish you're feeding them and what kind of fish? plus what are the sizes of your pirhanas?

mine are 1.5 inches long and i'm finding they're still a little bit slow to catch the guppy fry i put in there... those fry are frickin fast. the only thing they managed to kill was an old zebra fish that was close to death anyways and couldnt' swim very well.

with regards to decor... i've been told amazon sword plants are the natural habitat of pirhanas so if you can find either plastic or real sword plants you shoudl totally get em

hope that helps some

Daniel

 

:m16:
our piranha's are 1.5 and 2 inch's.

gold fish ranging in size from the smallest 4cm to 1 inch or so and they ate them ALL!!

 

:m16:

do piranha's sleep?

 

:m16:
OK so i got the tank all ready had it running for a few days before we put the paranhas in it and now that we have put the filters and paranhas in the tank has gotten all cloudy ! how do i clear it up whats wrong with it? can some one help me im worried!

 

i wouldnt reccomend feederfish as food...they are mostly fat and can introduce diseases into your tank and get your P's sick

 

:m16:
but your supose to feed them feeder fish and thats better than raw meat

 

actually your not supposed to feed them feeder-fish, ppl jsut think that since they are carnivores...other flake and pellet foods are much more nutitious for Pirahnas and can even help bring out the colors such as the red in a RBP.

 

what i did babydoll, was buy 2 male guppies and 4 female guppies and kept them in my 10 gallon tank and they 've been breeding like horndogs... it's awesome..

so yah i already have lots of fry growign up which i plan to feed to my pirhanas.

and i will know 100% that they're not dieased er nothing.

i've read that feeder fish are bad because they are the least taken care of fish and a lot of the times can harbour disease... somethign to be wary of like grnlemonade said.

 

yes, if you are still gonig to feed live fish, do what nexus is doing and raise your own so you know they are taken care of.

 

:m16:

sweet that sounds awsome raist my own makes it a lot cheaper thats for sure but if u rais them does taht take away the risk of desies , and ok so i want to raise them how do i go ahead and do so other than 2 male 4 females and a tank how do i know if they are going to make me some babys???

 

:m16:

ok and what about what kind of flakes we have the pelets but they are floating what ells can i feed them what kind? (all this new infoYAYAY) I WANT MORE!!!!

 

hehehe, i know the feeling...

i'm still new to pirhanas but i'm giving you all the info i have:

make sure you buy guppies.. they are soo easy to breed.. trust me, they'll be horny..

if you've got a 10 gallon tank... put 4 females and 2 males in the tank... i gave them some mood bubbles :wink: and make sure you have an area for the young fry to hide after being born.. a floating plant works well i hear... what i did was use a pile of marbles plus some plastic plants in the corner to provide shelter from the bigger fish eating them. THen i cranked the barry white and let those babies do the rest.

however.. you can't have all yoru fry growing up in that 10 gallon because it will get overcrowded...and stress will lead to abortions of your pregnant mother guppies..... i have a blue starter beta kit that i'm using to grow the baby guppies up in before i toss them in with the pirhanas. Guppy mothers can hold sperm and are able to give liver births i think between 3-5 times with only one contact with a male. so that means a lot of babies. and this self reproducing population of fish will be very easy to maintain because if any of the fish die you will have more int he making.

cheers,
Daniel

 

I'm using Mollies as my breeders, and I have 1 male and 3 females, 2 of which are already pregnant. I have also set up a 2 gallon tank with an under gravel filter (to avoid sucking the babies into the filter) that is set aside as the 'baby tank.' I should call it the 'fry vat.'

Good luck.

 

:m16:
what about the cloudy'ness of my tank?? its cloudy what do i do

 

check your filter..

make sure it's clean... are you throwing anything else into the tank?

check your water readings and is it a particular color?

could be algae.
your tank shouldn't be in direct sunlight if it is

 

cloudy tank

If your tank was only set up for a couple of days b4 you put fish in it hasn't had time to cycle yet and the tank will be cloudy until it does.

 

:m16:
ok its is not in direct sun light at all
the filters are new (brand new) how long till it takes for the water to cerculate and clean it self! with the fish in it, and the water is just cloudy so white no colour and what should i be cheaking in the water?

 

A recently started freshwater tank can take anywhere from 3-6 weeks to fully cycle and build up on the essential bacterias that keep your water clear. What you may have right now is an ammonia spike (seeing as how the tank is so new, and this is the first bacteria that develops) ... get yourself a test kit, and watch your water parameters. Once it clears up, it's not over ... you will then go through a nitrite spike which may or may not cloud your tank again ... when that clears, your ammonia and nitrite levels should have crashed to zero and the bacteria "nitrate" should rise to a safe level ... at this point, the tank has been cycled and regular water changes and maintenance should keep it this way.

Because you have fish in the tank right now, I would suggest going to get a product like Cycle, or even Stress Zyme to help them deal with the toxicity levels as your tank goes through its cycling process. Regular partial water changes will also help ensure their health while this is going on.

The bacteria that keeps your water clean and safe for your fish live in your substrate, on rocks & decorations and in filter media (like if you have a sponge filter) ... extensive scrubbing and cleansing of these things will kill it all and cause your tank to cycle all over again, so if they need a washing, make it a quick & light one in water the same temperature as your tank water.

Hope this helps ... I've been running 3 freshwater tanks for about 2 1/2 years now and a saltwater for a year. Most of this I learned on my own by reading articles online, and some came from a friend of mine who's had large salt & freshwater tanks for over 10 years.

 

are you sure you did not treat your tank with anything?

i find that cloudy water alot of times comes from some sort of chemical reacting with the carbon you probably have in your filters