Piranha Diet

[FishFury]

Hi all, I recently acquired two large 12 inch Pygocentrus. A Piraya and a Ternetzi, they are awesome and cohabitating fine.

They have been raised on a diet of Krill before I got them. I want to give them a better diet. So I have been trying to adjust them to different foods. They will eat market shrimp like crazy, they smell it and hunt it down immediately. I'm also wanting them to eat some meat. So I've been trying thinly sliced beef. Both were hesitant and ignore the food at first but after few days of not eating, they became really hungry.

The Piraya now eats the meat readily but the Ternetzi will not eat it all. He's been going on 7 days now without eating. Is this a good idea to change their diet and or should I just stick with the market shrimp.

Advice appreciated

 

[FishFury]

Sorry just realized that there is a Sticky on this very topic.

Advice still appreciated

 

[Greez]

I could go over some things in the sticky but it doesn't really seem like it would give you any more information then what the sticky itself will tell you.

The only thing I have to add is that they are not young Piranhas at 12" and may be hard to switch them to something new if the previous owner feed them certain things all the time... With that said I wouldn't feed them beef and if you really want to then feed them beef heart and only as a treat...

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

egeneraly speaking feeding them beef is not a good idea the more complex protiens and fats found in beef (as compared to fish,mollusks and crustaceans) are not bioavailable to the piranhas (I.E their body will not absorb/ make use of them) and these will end up fouling your water quality. Market shrimp, krill, fish fillet, slices of whole fish, certain feeders (NOT goldfish or any type of carp; rosy reds or barbs) are all excellent choices for a piranha diet

 

[Fabes34]

New to the site but already found loads of good info, have 3 about 4 month old rbp, when they were smaller i was feeding them almost exclusively frozen blood worms but the last couple months ive moved onto a diet of earthworms, frozen cod fillet, tuna fish and guppy fry from my roomates community tank. I saw a lot about not feeding them feeders on this site and was wondering if the guppy fry would fall into that category. Also is their current diet alright? they used to eat pretty voraciously whenever I fed them, and now they have toned way back, wondering if i need to switch up something. Thanks!