A guy came into our shop yesterday. He said he had 8inch piranahs in with some 12 inch koi, and they were all getting on great. He said there was trouble at feeding time but other wise they were fine. I encurraged him to get another tank, explaining the potential problems and said the koi must be stressed living with giant predators. He couldn't see the problem. Why do people do this, when there are so many types of fish you could keep together and would get a long.

I think he was lying

I think he was lying

It's possible but not much fun, I'd say the Koi would be extremely stressed if it is true.

Incidentally, my new tank has just finished cycling and I'm not on the hunt for some juvenille Red Belly Piranha. I've been building up to this for a year, getting bits and pieces, research and setting up the tank.

Does anyone know where is the best place to get RBP's? I've been to Newlands Cross and they have some sometimes, Aquatic Village have some larger ones last time I was there an my LFS said they can get them in.

Any recommendations ?

Cheers,

Matt

I was in Brittas a couple of weeks ago and they had 3. Didn't look too young though. Probably the ones you're referring to.

Yeah, I was there a couple of weeks ago, I'd say they were the same ones. Just called them and they said that they should be getting some wild caught ones from Brazil in a couple of weeks. I was told that a few weeks ago so guess I just gotta keep calling Must be hard to import to be fair !!

we have some really nice ones in at the moment (and they aint wild caught) avoid wild caughts where ye can folks!

gav tropical world.


p.s your story does not surprise me in the least.Irish people do some really stupid things when it comes to mixing fish.A customer called me every name under the sun once cause I told him he shouldn't keep koi in a tropical tank..."I've been doing it for years and they are grand syndrome" ho hum.

p.s your story does not surprise me in the least.Irish people do some really stupid things when it comes to mixing fish.A customer called me every name under the sun once cause I told him he shouldn't keep koi in a tropical tank..."I've been doing it for years and they are grand syndrome" ho hum.


I had the same response to someone who had sick goldfish with swimbladder problems.

we have some really nice ones in at the moment (and they aint wild caught) avoid wild caughts where ye can folks!


Why is that, I've almost always always heard the opposite as they are more colourful.

PS, where are you ?

Matt

No need to get wild caught as they are taken well....taken from the wild.This encourages the trade in all sorts of fish that the locals could be earning money from by breeding instead of messing up their habitat by removing top predators and rare fish.Red bellies are in no danger at the moment, but who knows what the situation will be in a few years time if people continue to farm from the wild.Some of the lakes in africa have really copped on to this and are breeding lots of stuff using the lakes environment rather then fishing(still lots of it going on as well though)...south america is a little behind in this regard.We try to avoid wild caught whre possible(some stuff just hasn't been bred yet and if you want to stay up with your competitors then you have too personally i'd like to see everyone stop selling wild stuff..) but things like pirhana are have long been aquarium bred and as such if you have an alternative to wild caught then you should use it.. Imho the colours are just as nice.We are located on parnell st under wackers.

Gardenworks in Clonee usually have RBP's.

Processor.