Tropical fish, Piranhas advice please

Marty McFly

Hi and thks for taking the time to read my post. Here goes im currently looking at getting a fish tank and im thinking of piranhas or possibly even some other type of tropical fish. Having never had or kept fish before im a novice so any advice you could give on piranhas or other types of toprical fish would be greatly apprecciated. Thanks.

ValerieR

Welcome to the fish keeping hobby! Be warned, it's very addictive. There is plenty of reading up and research to be done before you actually get the fish in your tank and it's good to be prepared!
Piranhas are very agressive but, in my honest opinion, they are very static in a tank and I find them to be one of the most boring fish there is (however, different people, different tastes! ).
With these, you are also very limited with what else you could put in the tank with them.
They also grow quite big (18"), you'd need a rather large tank in order to accomodate them and extra filtration as they produce quite a lot of waste.
As you might have guessed, I personally don't like them. You probably would be better off going for some other type fish like a community tank or Malawi cichlids for example. You'll get more activity and more colour compared to the Pirahnas.
Plenty of information for beginners and examples of set ups can be seen in www.irishfishkeepers.com which is an Irish based discussion forum on fish keeping.
Best of luck with your research.
ValerieR