Piranhas in your aquarium

These fish are aggressive, they are by nature - predators, but, with the rightcontent, do not pose a threat to their owners. In the aquarium they look very impressive: the body they have high, compressed from the sides, the body color can be in all versions of silvery-blue with dark specks and dark gray with sparkles.

With age, the color of the piranhas varies - the sides become pink and covered with golden sequins. When the mood changes, the fish become completely black. In combination with the black fins, this looks very interesting.

In young piranhas, the tip of the tail and the place where the trunk passes into the tail have a dark strip. The teeth of these fish are also impressive - plate-like, sharp as a razor. The jaws of the piranhas are so powerful that with one bite the adult fish can easily bite a stick with the thickness of a man's finger.

Keep them at home not so hard. It is best for a flock of piranhas to use large, elongated aquariums (about 500 liters), with large bushes of plants - can be artificial - and shelters in the form of driftwood, stones. In small volumes, fish are aggressive to each other and to other large fish. Small piranhas do not pay attention to small fish, so they can be kept together, but at the same time make sure that the piranhas are not hungry.

The water must be very clean, the temperature is 24-26C. Periodically a small part of the water volumereplace with fresh, stand-by, and also clean the soil. Fish do not tolerate sharp changes in the temperature and chemical composition of water when replacing it. Required for the aquarium aeration (air purging) and water filtration.

A clear hierarchy is noticeable in the pack, especially when feeding. If you feed pieces of meat or fish, alternatelythrowing them into the aquarium, then the first "main" female emerges to eat, for the following pieces of female smaller than the rank, and only in the end - males. And so - in a circle. An exception can be made for "expectant mothers", they eat more than others. Also surprising is the fact that a male who sits before spawning with a female, as a rule, he will not touch the food until his lady is nestled.

Piranhas eat any kinds of animal feed. It is important only that the pieces are sufficienta large size - small pick up fish is not interesting. The most common food - lean beef and beef heart, meat of sea fish and pink salmon. Freshwater fish should not be given, as they can be brought into the aquarium with parasites and diseases. Meat and fish are best hung in an aquarium on a string. Do not forget to remove the uneaten remains of food in a timely manner, because water causes them to deteriorate too quickly.

Small piranhas willingly eat such worms as a bloodworm, a pipe man and a coronet - they can be easily obtained even in winter. Also, piranhas are often fed live fish, tadpoles and frogs. In the aquarium you can also plant a stock of fodder fish, which piranhas, as they desire, will gradually eat up.

No matter how strange it sounds, but these fish are very fearful and easily fall into shock during fright, transportation, a sharp change in the quality of water. At the same time the fish suddenly turns pale and falls sideways to the bottom. There is nothing terrible in this, and after a while the fish begins to swim as usual, but it is better, of course, they do not bring it up to then.