Pirahna tank decorating

[TheGuppy]

What is the best way to plant / decorate my pirahna tank? Right now they're just in there with gravel and a couple of clay pots to hide in. Should an pirahna tank be planted or just rocks and such? They're so hyper-active I don't know exactly what's best for them.

-guppy

 

[cdawson]

Is the tank cycled? There should be open space for swimming, driftwood and rocks. There aren't any plants where pirahna come from, except floating plants. Don't use high lighting for a pirahna tank, use subdued lighting.

 

[NatakuTseng]

There generally isn't plants, but having them make them feel a bit more secure it seems, and for the most part they leave the plants alone.Having some taller plants like amazon swords and things like that will also give shaded areas in the tank where its quite dark, they seem to appreciate the tank being broken up between light and dark spaces. What size is the tank and how many pirahna do you have in there, and what kind are they?

 

[TheGuppy]

It's a 55 gallon, cycled. four red bellies. One of them is about 3-4 inches. The other three are only 1-1.5 inches. They dont really bother eachother. My current set up is with gravel, the pots and dim lighting. I might think about alternating between light areas and dark areas. The aquarium store I work at has a lot of drift-wood and grapevine lying around. I can pick some of that up for them no problem. thanks for the help.

-gup

 

[geoffgarcia]

They're so hyper!

huh? are you sure they are piranha?
I kept 4-5 of them about 4" long for about 2 years and they are the dullest most unactive fish in the world. 95% of the time they just sat there.
When they were smaller (got them when they were ~0.75" long) they were a bit more active. as they got larger they just tended to thash about more for food...

in all the big aquariums I've seen them in (baltimore, camden, etc) they tend to be in huge tanks with some rock work, mud substrate, and some low plants but they always swim in the open waters...or I should say they lurk cuz they hardly swim.
As they grow larger they'll knock stuff around much more easily...so dont put anything in there that is to precarious or could move and hurt the tank in any way.