buying a piranha
 

well..i want one, my friend has 2 and they are awesome..he got them when they were about the size of a nickle..now they are the size of my fist! my question is..i know they are illegal to own in SOME STATES. but i live in south dakota and im pretty sure they are legal here. but im not sure if they are legal to sell?? i guess i just dont want to drive 50 miles to get one and they dont sell them because they cant import them..anybody own any and what did they have to do to get them?

RE: buying a piranha
 

You just have to keep calling around. I was trying to get some about a year ago, and I had to go out of state. I got there and saw what they were asking for one, and I said no thanks. My room mate and I bought some Oscars instead. They will eat just about anything when they are big enough too. They are both dirty fish and they mess up the tank really fast.

RE: buying a piranha
 

what kind were you trying to buy..i think i found a place here that sells red belly ones for $10.00 a piece. or 10 for 80.00

RE: buying a piranha
 

I think they would be interesting to watch.

RE: buying a piranha
 

I don't know what kind they were. I ended up finding one place that had two that were already pretty large and they wanted like $65 a piece.

RE: buying a piranha
 

Be carefull your not getting a Pacu. I read the term red-bellied mentioned, and I have seen mostly that people refer that to red-bellied pacus. The Pacu is a member of the piranha family, they have little layered teeth and the whole 9 yards and definately look the part. But.....Pacus get 3ft long and 25-30 lbs. Wal-Mart irresponsibly sells them for a few bucks, when they are small.......but soon you'll find out that they don't stay small for long, not long at all. I have seen sellers raise red-bellied pacus, and damn near starve them, and when they did get fed, it was quite a show, and they sold fast. Under normal conditions, they are quite docile and get along with most semi agressive fish. I had mine in a community tank, there was no fighting. I think the feeding frenzy normally associated with piranhas is due to them schooling and not comming by food all that often, so when they do, well, you know the rest. A freind has a red-bellied pace in a 90gal setup, he got rid of it because it was outgrowing the 90gal! But, before he did, the thing would eat raw chicken, at that size flakes don't cut it.

RE: buying a piranha
 

meh..theses are baby ones..but thats what i want.. there fun to watch grow..like a kid almost:) hopefully i can find one around here..iguess there getting alot harder to find now

RE: buying a piranha
 

my tiger oscar eats piranha lol

RE: buying a piranha
 

What I;m saying is that if you don't have a massive set-up the thing will grow up to stuff the tank, as in, won't fit. Thats "IF" its a pacu, I am not positive on a real piranha, but often the pacus are sold as a south american red-bellied piranha or somthing snazzy like that, aka->Pacu

RE: buying a piranha
 

well ill make sure i get the right one then..cause im not gonna have a 90 gal tank..maybe 65. that should be good for a small piranha tho. ill shop around tuesday..if all else fails i will just order one.