How can you make your P more active/comfortable?

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P

Polyptasaurus

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 6, 2009
632
11
48
New York
Granted, I've only had my P for a week, but he is really inactive. I picked up a Black Mask Elong because they are "supposedly" the most active piranhas in the world. The problem is... he is only active with the light off. He has eaten, but I've never seen it happen, and he doesnt even SWIM with the light on. None of the people I've seen or heard from had to keep their light off to get their P to be active. Does anyone have any tips for this?
 
You've only had him a week.he probably isn't even comfortable yet. Dark background n sub, dim light or none at all, spend some hours in front of your tank.
 
i have a pretty bright light, i dont want to buy a new one, maybe i can buy a transparent colored peice of plastic to put over it to dim the color. spending time in front of the tank is hard only because he doesnt even move so its boring, lol. but i'll definitely try.
 
you can leave the light the way it is but it's going to take time for it to get use to the light and the new tank. or dimming the light will def. help.
what's your tank setup looks like?
 
its a 75g with a few rocks and some drift wood. hes small so he still has plenty of room to swim around, but also room to hide. i know that a lot of people keep these in a tank with NO rocks or wood. which might actually inadvertently make him more active because he has nowhere to hide.
 
well that is really up to you, do you want you fish to swim around because it's happy or because it's stressed and trying to get out of the tank?
give it more time and it would come out of its shell. also adding powerhead could help as well (sometimes)
 
lol, no of course not, i'd never do that. i just slipped some pieces of paper between the light and the glass to dim the light a little, that should help out (hopefully).
 
usually a piece of paper won't be enough, you can also try to use aluminum foil and just poke some hole on it so some of the light comes through some gets blocked.
 
i thought about that, but the foil generates a lot more heat, even with holes in it. the paper actually made a noticeable difference and its not like i want it to be DARK in there. i see videos online of peoples elongs in REALLY bright tanks, just swimming around like crazy and wreaking havoc on any living fish put in the tank. so i dont want it to get too used to dark water when it apparently isnt necessary.
 
shouldn't foil restrict the transfer of heat to the tank though? It'd reflect it back up. Paper is more likely to catch fire?
 
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