Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

A news bit I just saw got me thinking. A friend kept a large piranha for several years and it was beautiful... really striking. I know that as a cultivated fish the carnivorous species are messy and require a high degree of maintenance to treat the high amounts of ammonia that results from their messy eating habits (amounts of food that falls to the floor).

That in turn, naturally got me thinking .

Thoughts?

I have heard that they are very good eating.

I've heard that they are full of bones.

There are vegetarian species of piranha but I don't know how big they get.

Yeah, pacu I think. The piranha would be in a decorative tank that drains to the main dish tank and they wouldn't be for eating.

Sent from my newfangled doodad using TapaTalk.

Silver dollars are the same family. They look almost the same but only eat vegetarian

Pacu teeth freak me out, they almost look human!

vegetarian but with a penchant for meatballs LOL

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... Coast.html

Pacu are known as the "tank buster" they get very big and will outgrow many tanks.. They are also known for being destructive. Do your research on this species if you are serious and make sure you know what you are getting.

brian

Just had a thought... Great way to keep squirrels out of your garden, an aquaponic moat surrounding thegrow beds filled with ravenous piranha... I crack me up!

Piranha are very good eating and really not that boney. The biggest problem I see is that they are not cost effective do to there diet of raw meet and the sheer amount of it that they eat. If cost is not an issue "AND THEY ARE LEGAL IN YOUR STATE" I say go for it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Do some research on them first.... there are some challenges to keeping them. The most common is the serrasalmus nattereri, the red belly piranha. They need to be kept in a school of three or more, 9 or more is better. They are in the tetra family and are very shy even in numbers. In fact, they are wimps and are only dangerous when they are starving. They have an amazing social hierarchy and are fascinating to watch. As a pet, I recommend them to anyone whom is responsible, as food... you might get to attached to eat them.

There are two members that had a feed source for them.

One of them was abundant feral pigs and the other was squirrels. Not so expensive when you want to get rid of it.

Be careful with raw pig! It can and usually does contain a dangerous parasite called trichinosis I think. I don't know if the fish would be affected by it or if they could carry it to humans by eating them.. You might want to research before using pig.