Hey Piranha-folk. I've always been a huge Arowana and Gar person myself, but I saw 7 baby RB Piranhas at my LFS (ranging between 2-4 inches) and I had to convert to the dark side. They're awesome fish, and so far I have not had any problems in feeding or caring for them. I do have one question for you guys though. 2 of them are missing one eye each, and 2 of them have one messed up eye each. I've noticed that the 3 piranhas with perfect eyes are the ones that go for food first, followed by the 4 handicapped ones. I do make sure that I give enough food, so that none of them are left behind. My question is that do any of you foresee any problems with missing eyes. I bought them like that from the LFS, I'm assuming they were underfed and started picking at eachother.
Just picked up 7 RBP's!
- Thread starter 5thColumn
- Start date
i had one eye caribe before, never had an issue with it. in the wild the water they live in is murky and they rely more on other sense such as smell and vibration (lateral line). other than appearance I don't see any problem with one eye fish aside from getting a way from a sudden attack quick enough from the blind side that came from a fish right next to it.
I've had some one-eyed baby RBP. When they were small, no issue. As they got bigger, the one-eyed ones would always be dominated by the others. At feeding time they wouldn't get as much food. To be able to feed them, I had to stuff the other guys. As they became adult, started to lose some due to aggression. The shoal would constantly adjust as one is picked on, and in turn it would pick on the next one. Like a hierarchal affect, most dominant to the least. So the one-eyed ones would be at the bottom of the shoal. What I noticed is they can't see the other Piranha coming at them on the blind side, eventually that side of the fish would get injured. The one-eyed ones would be attacked by the shoal once it got too weak to defend itself.
Thanks for the input. Fishfury, that's what I was scared about. Luckily the two guys with missing eyes are a couple inches bigger than the rest, so hopefully they stay bigger if they're eating right. I did notice that they are horrible at getting food if it manages to get on their blind side, it is quite funny to watch lol. They just stop and look around. Oh and the tank I have them in is 4x1x1. I'm assuming it'll be big enough at least for a few more months.
Welcome to the dark side 
Ive heard of this before but have never seen it myself. But the way it turned out was that the piranhas started to slowly pick off the one eyed ones. Kind of like a survival of the fittest sort of thing. Hope everything works out for you though. Good luck with your RBP'S. They are a very fun rewarding fish to keep.
Kyle
Ive heard of this before but have never seen it myself. But the way it turned out was that the piranhas started to slowly pick off the one eyed ones. Kind of like a survival of the fittest sort of thing. Hope everything works out for you though. Good luck with your RBP'S. They are a very fun rewarding fish to keep.Kyle
I had one with a messed up eye also, but he recently got into a fight an got ate by 2 bigger P's that grew bigger then him in a short time. Probley because his condition made him the weakest link an he was over agressive though. Always nipping at fins an bully'n. I guess its better he was gone but I tended to like him because he was different.