True Amazonia piranhas

[Fingerling]

Anyone can tell me...

Amazon Piranhas are not shipped to singapore because

AVA doesnt allow it? or there isnt a demand of them here?

[urbach]

its illegal.

FISHERIES ACT
(CHAPTER 111, SECTION 7)
FISHERIES (PIRANHA) RULES
[4th June 1971]
Citation.
1. These Rules may be cited as the Fisheries (Piranha) Rules.
Piranha not to be kept, etc.
2. No person shall keep, breed, sell, purchase, import into or export from Singapore the species of fish known as
piranha.
Piranha not to be released into river, etc.
3. No person shall release any piranha into any stream, river, canal, channel, watercourse, reservoir, lake or
other body of water.
Penalty.
4. Any person who contravenes rule 2 or 3 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a
fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both.

Taken from AVA website.

Get a Pacu if you like piranha look a look but prepared a hugh tank as they will grow..and grow...

[Morgan01]

i have seen fish with close resemblance to the piranha sold in LFS...you can check them out if keen.

[Fingerling]

FISHERIES ACT

to 3. No person shall release any piranha into any stream, river, canal, channel, watercourse, reservoir, lake or
other body of water

Guess they must be afraid that irresponsible owners release their pirahnas into ponds or reserviors where people do kayaking etc in.

Yea Morgan, those are pacus, thing is they dont appeal to me as much as a pirahna.

[BFG]

What are you trying to achieve by keeping piranha? What are the appeal?

[Fingerling]

Their predatory behaviour and feeding frenzy is what i find most appealing

[BFG]

I wouldn't think you would like their feeding frenzy. The water will get dirty fast with food debris you thrown in, whatever it is you would want to feed them. In their natural habitat, of course you are in awe of how they feed but once in the tank, you would have to deal with the food leftover in the water.

[Fingerling]

Pirahnas will not leave big chunks of leftover food. ( They are one of the main fishes in the amazon that clean the water of dead carcasses. ) By using a filter, the small bits of food that clouds the water would be cleaned out. Of course im still unaware of their behaviour in a tank whether they become more aggressive or docile towards their food.

haha would you try out pirahnas if given the chance BFG?

[urbach]

Their predatory behaviour and feeding frenzy is what i find most appealing

amazing fish. much to learn abt it. FORUM
Keep this fish back in my home town.
i can give the shop address if you wanna to view the live fish if you are visiting jakarta.

[MADMichael]

I seen the piranhas in Van Kleef Aq when I was 15 yrs old. Beautiful, ugly but full of character.
Highly social creatures, so U need a few of them (more than 10)!!!
Very strong swimmers, so U need a LARGE tank!!!
They may not attack everything alive in the tank, behaviour highly dependant on water temperature and scarcity of food.
Van Kleef got rid of theirs when during a visit by LKY (then PM), he asked the curator how he ensure, during water change, no aggs flow into the sewer system.
Now that's something you hav to figure out for yourself.
Happy searching, if you try hard enough you should be able to get some in S'pore.

[fisherw]

There will be left overs, not necessarily food. Way back before they were banned, a friend had a shoal. Once when I was at his place, he fed them with kuning or yellowstripe scad (the nasi lemak fish, of course not deep fried). The kuning was stripped clean in seconds leaving behind the skeleton and the head, requiring removal.

The reason they were banned it seems is that in the 60s and 70s, Singapore experienced seasonal flooding (end of the year). The floods affected the fish farms and the rumour was that piranhas escaped biting people wading in the flood waters. No confirmation as far as I know (this was before Stomp and camera phones and before when practically every event is captured on video and transmitted world-wide including school kids horsing around during a birthday celebration or a couple of individuals streaking in Holland V).

So now you have to go to Jakarta to see a feeding frenzy or search Youtube.

[urbach]

I seen the piranhas in Van Kleef Aq when I was 15 yrs old. Beautiful, ugly but full of character.
Highly social creatures, so U need a few of them (more than 10)!!!
Very strong swimmers, so U need a LARGE tank!!!
They may not attack everything alive in the tank, behaviour highly dependant on water temperature and scarcity of food.
Van Kleef got rid of theirs when during a visit by LKY (then PM), he asked the curator how he ensure, during water change, no aggs flow into the sewer system.
Now that's something you hav to figure out for yourself.
Happy searching, if you try hard enough you should be able to get some in S'pore.

dont need 10 or more, i kept only 2 of them in 4ft tank for past 3 year.

[BFG]

haha would you try out pirahnas if given the chance BFG?

Nope, I had enough of keeping large fish that need a large amount of food to feed them. My last large fish was an arowana when I was in secondary school. During that time, when it was raining, I always asked myself why I need to go out in the rain to buy feeder food for my arowana. Large fish will turn dull when they aged and lose their lustre then when they were in juvenile stage. Piranha could become this the longer you had them in your tank and they might lost their 'wild' character like my arowana. My arowana was so tame than when I place 2 finger just below the water line, it will swin through between my 2 finger. Long story short, from then on, I would keep small fish in a big tank than have fish that would grow big in a big tank.

[Fingerling]

Hi Urbach,

Yeah! Id love to see some live pirahnas in Jakarta. Maybe you can be my guide if i ever get a chance to go over? Not too familiar with the place.


Hi MadMichael,

Are their eggs that strong, so much so it poses a threat of hatching even in the sewers? The possibilities of LFS carrying a banned fish = Guess the only time these fishes and other exotic frogs etc will be legalised is if an AQ member becomes head of AVA haha.


Hi fisherw

Floods that allowed farmed fish to escaped actually happened?? Wonder if it floods again, we might find farmed arowanas swimming around us! haha


Anyway thanks guys for sharing, guess im only able to marvel at amazonia pirahnas on youtube or documentary videos in singapore

[hwchoy]

I think I remember those from Van Cleef. Anyway rumour was that some were sighted in Jurong River/Lake this was back in the 70/80s.

We already have enough problems with escaped/released cichlids, luohans and giant catfish.

[Fingerling]

Hi BFG,

maybe your arowana aknowledged that if he bites your two fingers, he might not have any food coming into his tank for a long, long time. Anyway im sure it was a heck of an experience watching your arowana grow before converting to small fish.

Cheers.

[oaken]

If you want a predatory fish I'd suggest you go for Channas or something like that. If you necessarily want a predatory south american tetra then Hoplias would be a more interesting choice than Piranha. The most common Piranha Pygocentrus nattereri is really shy and actually a very cowardly acting fish, but it seems most people are not aware of that. They dont really attack other fish unless you don't feed them for weeks, or the other fish in question are very small.

[MADMichael]

Piranhas are social, communicative creatures, there is a packing order in any school.
Once the group diminishes below 5, only the alpha male and alpha female is active. The rest becomes subserviant. Then the activity level is as good as keeping 2 fish. Not fun any more. They hav long mortality too, so if U ever gets them, make sure you stick with them for some time.

[Fingerling]

Hi Oaken,

I do own some channas . Yea Hoplias are awesome too. If need be, ill get a hoplias and name it piranha

[Mez]

Couple of things to point out here.
In the store i work in, i take care of all sorts of Piranha, including the famous red belly, however, please dont think these are aggressive fish that will give you a feeding freny very often. Red bellies are very shy if kept in 6+ fish, like they should be. The person(s) keeping just one or two is obviously just keeping them to 'have piranha'. They are certainly nothing like Hoplias.
Black Piranhas should be feared the most, these need to be kept singaly or they will eat each other.
Also, to achieve this famous feeding frenzy, you will need to completely starve the fish for at least 4-6 weeks then feed them one large meal, ideally half a carcass of lamb. Otherwise, feed on silversides and prepared foods, earthworms are always a favourite.