7 Keys About How to Pet Piranha Properly

How to Pet Piranha – Yes, piranha. If you’re shocked knowing that piranha can be a pet, you’ve been mistaken this cute fish. Piranha is actually omnivorous while it is also predatory fish living in freshwater like the rivers in the South America. Piranha spends most of the time searching preys, no wonder people think piranhas come with aggressive appetite and sharp teeth. That’s why you need to learn how to pet piranha.

Don’t be afraid of piranhas since they will never attack big animals and humans unless piranhas are trapped and feel threatened and starving. If you could set up proper tank for piranhas and understand how to pet them, your piranhas would be nice pet.

How to Pet Piranha Properly

1. Feeding piranhas

Don’t trust the movies that tell you piranhas only eat meats. They’re omnivores so you can give them various diet. Those diets would increase your piranhas’ lifespan while boosting those fishes’ immunity. You only have to feed piranhas once per day. Overfeeding piranhas is going to increase their waste amount inside your fish tank.

Good food for piranhas is including frozen foods, processed foods, and dried foods that are frozen like rainworms, shed snakeskin, prawns, crabs, and fishes. Give them some veggies like potatoes, spinaches, and raw zucchinis sometime. Do not feed your piranhas with some granules, flakes, dry market foods, and live animals. Those foods cause diseases and make your tank dirty.

2. Making sure that your piranhas are healthy

All living creatures in this world can get ill. If you don’t maintain the water in fish tank your fishes will get sick and probably die. Healthy piranhas are alert, active, don’t have any body damage, and eat quickly and readily. Your piranhas probably are sick if they show sluggishness or lethargy, serious body damage like bites, missing or cloudy eyes, visible skin parasites, or labored breathing.

3. Watch your piranhas’ normal behavior

Your piranhas might show some behaviors that don’t look normal. But some behaviors are normal so you don’t have to worry about them. When they tilt their tail and aim some gravels, they’re being aggressive so they can block someone who’s trying to enter their space. If you see your piranhas’ appearance looks paler, it is just their color that’s not yet come out but it is also mean a stress sign.

When piranhas open their mouth then violently wagging from a side to another side, they’re preparing themselves to fight. But if your piranhas repeatedly chomping their mouths, it is feeding time, they’re totally hungry. Piranhas that are circling the fish tank repeatedly show you that they’re controlling their territory or they’re trying to tell you they don’t like something inside aquarium.

How to Care for A Pet Piranha

So, you have learned about how to pet piranha. But understanding when to feed and their behaviors isn’t enough. You must also make sure that your piranhas’ house is always clean so your fishes will get good environments for their health. It is important to learn how to keep the fish tank clean all the time.

1. Make sure your piranhas have enough space

Check your fish tank again and make sure your piranhas can live happily in there. A tank with 40 gallons capacity is enough for two piranhas. The formula is 20 gallons for every piranha. If you have too many piranhas inside a small tank, you’ll need to get bigger tank. Add a tank screen to cover the top of your aquarium to prevent piranhas from jumping out.

2. Place the aquarium on appropriate spot

Heat and direct sunlight will encourage bacteria growth which is harmful for piranhas. Place your aquarium in safe spot where the sunlight or other extreme heats can touch your piranhas. This keeps them healthy and happy.

It is also important to place your aquarium in a place where the traffic is low. Too many people moving around your fish tank makes your piranhas stress and aggressive.

3. Clean your piranhas’ fish tank once a week

Piranhas must live in clean and fresh water. Cleaning the walls of fish tank and the gravel at the bottom of fish tank will prevent immune system problem along with odor problem. You only have to spend ten minutes for weekly maintenance. If there is odor or excess waste, you have to clean the fish tank more often.

Do not remove those fishes from aquarium when cleaning the tank. Piranhas will attack if you make them feel threatened and when they’re hungry. Wear heavy gloves to protect hands during the cleaning. If you must remove the fishes from tank, place huge fish net or bucket in aquarium then place piranhas inside separated tank quickly.

For better result, you’re recommended to use phyton or device that changes water. This device is connected to sink and eases you to keep the tank clean while minimizing aggressive behavior of piranhas. Remove waste and vacuum all gravels when you are using special device mentioned above and when your piranhas aren’t in the tank or else, you’ll make them stress.

4. Continuously checking your tank filters

Piranhas could produce so much waste. This means they will affect the quality of the water in the tank. Complete your aquarium with filter that’s extremely strong. Using some small filters is also a brilliant idea in order to prevent maintenance. When the water in your fish tank becomes quickly dirty, you might want to replace those filters with the new one.

Foul odor is also a sign that your fish tank needs new filters. So, smell the fish tank’s water and make sure there’s no foul odor.

The seven keys above are everything about how to pet piranha you have to learn. Follow the rules and you’ll be able to keep your piranhas healthy and not so aggressive. Never late feeding them, always keeping the tank and water clean, and placing the tank in a comfortable location are everything. Don’t trust people who told you piranhas are too dangerous. If you know the secrets, you’ll be their best pal.

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