new here, yep im a piranha freak

[TIGER9]

Pah - my Jack will eat his Piranhas any day

i doubt that greatly, though its not out of the realm of possibility.

Why FURY? - is that the fishes main attraction - a propensity towards mindless violence ?

i couldnt answer that question, im just a member not the creator of p-fury.

Perhaps we'll all be converted

im not tryin to convert anyone, i just want to share my experiences with piranha(thats what these sites are all about, right?). if people are interested then thats great, if not then so be it. no matter what ill still love owning them. i cant make people like piranha and its not my place to try and make them.

[lizwinz]

wow...i dont understand why anyone should have to defend why they choose to keep a certain kind of fish

how anyone can judge a fish to be ugly and boring & and the people who keep them to be immature and blood thirsty is beyond me...i know its only an opinion, but is it informed?

we all keep the fish we do for different reasons that might sound strange to others...especially to those that dont have fish at all so i think we should all be a little more understanding

btw i dont know much about piranha but they seem interesting...and a big school of them is a beautiful sight

--liz

[Purple]

I don't seek to generalise or to judge - from Tiger9's comments, it's obvious that there are intelligent P keepers out there. All I'm saying is that I've noticed that of all the fish out there, P's seem to attract some right idiots.
Not the fishes fault, and I do not wish to tar the good guys with the same brush.

All the same - I also think that the name of that site encourages misconceptions about the character of the fish, and that if you look at some of the nicks on that site, it would appear to have attracted some of the people who keep these fish for all the wrong reasons (unlike Tiger9).

And yes - we all have horror stories of bad fishkeeping - ranging from goldfish to people who keep great white sharks in their swimming pools. In the interests of fairness, I shall do my best to poke fun at them all ...........

As for my Jack - he just gets a bit "over friendly" sometimes. I think a bout with a Pirahna would do him some good - lol.

[TaffyFish]

I believe strongly in each to his/her own.

I am genuinely interested to hear more from piranha keepers about what "hooks" them into the hobby or even an obsession. But when I ask about it, albeit in a teasing way, I got a defensive reaction. I don't think they need to DEFEND it, I would appreciate it greatly if they would take the time to enthusiastically EXPLAIN it (or share their experience) - but there's seemingly no willingness to do this so we are all left with our observations and preconceptions.

Is it an informed opinion? No, as I've said before, it's an informed observation. I haven't formed an opinion yet because I still have an open mind on it.

[TIGER9]

I've noticed that of all the fish out there, P's seem to attract some right idiots.

- ill be the first to agree with that, and of course with ANY fish there will come bad owners who dont care about how to truly care for them, its the downside to the whole hobby (that and not havin enough $, to buy a bigger tank ).

I am genuinely interested to hear more from piranha keepers about what "hooks" them into the hobby or even an obsession

- ive always preferred the fish that other people might pass up, especially predators. about 6yrs. ago, when i was lookin for fish for an aquarium of my own i just happened to see some baby red-belly piranha. the first thought that came to mind was mindless-killer. and to be honest that peeked my interest a bit. i went home n TRIED to do some proper research online, i was amazed at how little info. there was. but i found quite a few pics of wild reds n caribe, which i though were quite beautiful. i thought to myself, wouldnt it be great to own a fish that I could learn all the ins n outs of by myself. something that most people never would think of owning. thats what STARTED me with piranhas, and alot of other owners u will find. after that it just gradually bloomed into a full-on obsession. maybe this is the answer ur lookin for taffy?

[Piranhaman!]

but I can't help noticing a concentration of hormonal aggression amongst P keepers. Lets face it - even that site is called P fury. Why FURY? - is that the fishes main attraction - a propensity towards mindless violence ? heck - most P's are pretty docile, yet the FURY part is pushed to the front.

Hormonal aggression amongst P keepers eh? Yes, in alot of cases it's true. Also true, and maybe even more so, in south and central american cichlid keepers. Plus the barrage of of other big toothy fish out there. I constantly see and hear of morons out there fighting their fish with other fish for mere status.
Even some betta keepers have been known to start pathetic little fight clubs. The true piranha hobbyist or collector has nothing to prove.
What's the attraction to piranha you ask? I can't speak for everyone but, me personally, I've been keeping fish of all kinds for over 30 years and until I got the internet about 5 years ago, I never knew I could actually obtain piranha species that are virtually unavailable to the general public. I've kept almost everything (over and over in some cases) there is at one point and this was all new and exciting to me, keeping something other than the common redbelly piranha.
Most people who don't know a piranha from a silver dollar love to generalize them as mindless killers. But, they have probably never kept or heard of anything outside of the pygocentrus family. The serrasalmus genus is the new world group, more evolved, and more intelligent and interesting IMO. If you're going to ask "why we keep piranhas?", you might as well ask why do we keep fish at all? Why do we choose the species we do? Every fish has a trait somebody loves for some reason. What does it matter?

And yes, I'm sure the name Piranha "Fury" was chosen because of it's flare. It draws them in. We probably wouldn't have the same success we do with something like "Piranha Whisperers". Dig?

[TIGER9]

well put piranhaman, but i wouldnt go so far as to say that serra's are more intelligent than pygo's. tho with ur experience uve probably been keeping serra's longer than ive been keeping piranha at all. what are ur current specimens?.

MINE: 75g. w/1 spilo cf
55g. w/4 p. natt.
55g. w/1 juvi. rhom

[Piranhaman!]

Originally posted by TIGER9
well put piranhaman, but i wouldnt go so far as to say that serra's are more intelligent than pygo's. tho with ur experience uve probably been keeping serra's longer than ive been keeping piranha at all. what are ur current specimens?.

MINE: 75g. w/1 spilo cf
55g. w/4 p. natt.
55g. w/1 juvi. rhom

It's only an opinion from my observations Tiger9. I'm Serrapygo on PFury BTW.

Right now I only have 3. Rhom, Geryi and Brandtii.

[TIGER9]

!HOLY HELL!,(falls to one knee) i did not know i was in the presence of piranha royalty. forgive me my leige . now that ive been put in line, yall better believe what this man says when it comes to piranha. he speaks only truth.

[Grosse Gurke]

Im going to toss in my 2 cents because I think there are some comments in this thread that come from a very ignorant position. I keep piranhas for a few reasons, not the least of which is because they are a very missunderstood species. I am not going through puberty, I dont have a facination with gore...as a matter of fact, I have not fed my fish live in over a year. I keep these fish because that is my choice. I keep them because they interest me. I keep them because I have found them to be much more than the average uninformed person thinks they are.
One thing I find funny...for all the crap some piranha keepers get, we tend to not be near as judgmental as other fish keepers. You dont see me telling the guy who keeps neons that he is most likely gay. You dont see me telling the person that keeps a gold fish that they must have been abused as a child to keep a fish that is found in amusment parks. But where ever I go, there are always a few people that tell me why I keep piranhas...it is really quite funny. Oh well, I guess when you are dealing with a fish that is completely missunderstood, you might as well expect people to speak out of ignorance when they are refering to them.

A little about Piranha-Fury. The site was created because a mouse video was bashed when it was posted on a preditory fish site...so the owner of the video decided to create a web site to show it. This was a little over a year ago. Since then, we have grown to over 3000 members, we have an editor of TFH on our team, we have the man that got piranhas legalized in Oregon on our team. And we have a very commited staff that is trying to teach people about these amazing fish. Please dont dismiss Piranha-Fury as some site that is just there to display what these fish can do when feeding....we are much more than that.

I also have a fish that would love to meet your Jack