He bite me before he got into the tank
- Thread starter tonymofo
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awww, he's just a little guy. Imagine getting bit by a 13"er! Thats what we have. my boyfriend does water changes and puts his hand right down in there with him! So far no bad luck but I keep telling him it is only a matter of time...yours may make a nice hole, but this guy could proabably take your whole finger.
KaraJo;1136581; said:
You better tell your boyfriend to chill out!!!!!. When I got my black piranha there was a 12" Red belly there that the owner dropped off because it bit him below the elbow and the guy needed to get 23 stiches. The fish didn't want feeders anymore he just to taste his owners fingers. And another story is a 11 inch rhom bit this guys finger needer major surgry and even chiped a bone in his finger. And he lost feeling in his index finger. Here's a pic of the guys finger, and the article......................
A fishkeeper has suffered a severe injury to his finger after a large piranha bit a chunk out of it while being transferred to a new aquarium.
Mike Rizzo of East Lansing in Michigan was transferring his sub-adult Diamond rhombeus piranha, Serrasalmus rhombeus, to its spacious new aquarium when the fish tried to leap from the net. To prevent the 25cm/11" long fish damaging itself by hitting the ground, Mike put out his hand to block the the fish, but the piranha, which is known as Markov, sunk its teeth into the side of his right index finger.
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Markov the piranha in his new aquarium.
Rizzo told Practical Fishkeeping: "I was in the process of moving the piranha from a 55 gallon to a new 125 gallon tank I was setting up for him. I had caught him in a 10" net that wasn't quite big enough and had him out of the water, and as expected, he was flopping around in it. He went to jump, and out of instinct, I tried to stop him with my hand. It so happened that his mouth was right where my hand was and he bit down, but immediately let go.
"He got a hold of my finger damn well. He bit all the way down into my knuckle and broke the capsule my knuckle is in and chipped a piece of bone off it. The bite also went through the nerves and other stuff in my finger.
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The piranha sunk its teeth right down to the bone.
"At first it was extremely painful. I think that a lot of it was due to the initial shock as well as seeing the skin and flesh dangling off and seeing blood literally spurting out as my heat beat, and just forming a large pool on the floor."
"None of the doctors at the ER had ever seen a piranha bite, let alone a bite from an almost 11" piranha with a mouth the size of a golfball. It took them quite a while to decide what to do, but eventually they put three stitches in to hold it together and are waiting to see if it becomes infected."
Rizzo, who has had the piranha for three months, says the fish is still growing and could reach as much as 45cm/18" in length. The fish has not previously bitten before.
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Surgeons used three temporary stitches in case they need to operate at a later date.
Rizzo added: "While doing maintenance, I used to actually push him around the tank with my hand and he is always very mellow and never shows any aggression. I am now taking precautions though, and have fabricated a small box of out of egg-crating from Home Depot to put in his tank to keep him cornered in one area while I clean the tank.
"Most of the doctors were surprised to hear that I was going to keep the fish and not either sell him or eat him."
The doctors who treated the wound are unsure as to whether the fish has caused lasting damage to the finger. Rizzo says that they were glad to see that he was still capable of moving the finger but said that due to the severity of the bite, it was likely that most of the nerves in the tip of the finger had been damaged. It could take as long as two years before all the feeling comes back, but it should eventually heal.
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Despite the wound it inflicted, Rizzo still intends to keep the fish.
i am the one karajo was talking about...w/ the 13" rhom. as long as he is in his favorite spot of the tank and i don't intrude he is fine. he'll just stand his ground and watch me clean. i havent been bitten yet, but the first time we moved him he chewed most of the way through a 10" net.
nice rhom btw...i like there color at that size.
nice rhom btw...i like there color at that size.
tonymofo;1136830; said:
when i got him he was messed up pretty badly. his bottom lip was gone and his fins were torn. he is healing nicely, but i was going to wait until he was healed to post pics. i'll go home tonight and take some pics and maybe post them. just understand that he is still a little rough around the edges, but not from my care.
I had a 11" rhom and my hands were in the tank all the time. Just don't corner the fish and you should be ok. The time a big piranha is the most dangerous is when its in the net or on the floor. I never used nets to move the large Ps I had I used 5g buckets. I have never heard of a piranha biting through a bucket.
