LesleyFish' P.Nattereri Growout Thread

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LesleyFish

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 8, 2008
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Overview: I have kept fish for the past few years. I have kept mostly Mbuna Cichlids and have since decided to give away most of my Mbunas and grow out a shoal of 5 Pygocentrus Nattereri or Redbelly Piranha. They are going to be house in a 55g until they reach around 5" and then will be moved to a 110. I have never kept Piranhas before and hope this guide wil encourage some people to go the extra distance to care for and learn about these amazing fish.

Food: I have started off feeding a mix of Shrimp, Blood Worms and Tilapia Filets. These Foods are fed to the Piranha's in small portions 2-4 Times a day. I will include portion sizes with pictures of feedings.

Water Params: Very important due to the messy nature of Piranha feeding. I am currently running a Whisper 60 and an Emperor 400 at a combined rate of 700GpH. My P.h. at the start is at 7.1. My heater is a Neptune rated for 90g maintaining a water temp of 80 Degrees.

I hope to make this a guide to keeping P's and also about raising them from fry. I feel like there is a lot of great information on these boards, and will work my best to centralize most of it in full detail in my post. Please bare with me, I will update once a week with pictures. Questions or comments are welcome, but there is no place for flaming in this post.
 
Water Params: Ph 7.0, Water Temperature - 81 Degrees

Feeding: Tilapia Filet - One small chunk with some knife strokes in it to thin it out and make it a more palatable consistency. The little guys don't quite have the teeth to shred pieces off the whole filet as noted by an early attempt to feed them just a chunk. Food is placed in tank and allowed to sit on the bottom for 10-15 minutes. This allows enough time for feeding to occur without lowering water quality. Extra time is given if fish are still around the filet.

First Picture is 4 out of 5 Pygocentrus Nattereri Fry
Second Picture is a whole Tilapia Filet, these are extremely cheap and high in protein and low in fat and oils. I paid 3 dollars for a pound of filets, which equals out to about 5 big filets.

Third picture is what a chunk of filet looks like after being butterflied, and macerated a little to make it easier for the small fry to eat.Will update later with a feeding picture, I forgot to put the memory card back in my camera, but intend on feeding once more today.

Tilapia.jpg

Tilapia Prep.jpg
 
Nice thread, will check it daily.
 
How have they been doing?
 
P's are still doing well, it's amazing how fast they grow... they are finally rounding out and starting to get longer. I'll post some new pics up later today, along with my light homemade light dimmers, and other foods.
 
Sounds good. :)
 
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