Red Bellied Piranha

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otis5468

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 8, 2009
19
0
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grants pass , oregon
Hi, I am new to this site, I purchased 2 young adult redbellied piranha about 4 months ago, I have read alot on them but there really isnt to much info out there about them, one of my piranha has a fat belly, and it swims sometimes with its nose more pointed up towards the surface, my ph is pretty low, always has been since I set up the tank,between 6- 6.6 they only eat about every 3-4 days, otherwise they just waste the food, so Im not overfeeding, Is this normal? The fish store I bought them from the guy knows alot about fish but not piranha, I feed them raw prawns, silver fish, and algea wafers, can anyone give me some GOOD advice on them, some one with piranha experience, thanks so much, piranha Lady:WHOA:
 
Ph is a bit low. Their diet is good though. At least you are not feeding them live food. Try and get them on pellets, although they will probably be a lot more stubborn now that they are larger. It is normal to not feed them for days at a time. twice a week at adult stage is fine but it is not normal that they are refusing food. Not sure what you mean by a fat belly, try and post pictures so we can try and see what is going on.

try and add a few more things to their diet, like pellets that I mentioned, earthworms, tilapia, any white flesh fish is great for them, not sure how often you are feeding them wafers, but try and cut wafers to only on occasions.
 
Nothing wrong with feeding your piranhas live food ~~
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I agree. Feeder fish are not a good a stable food, and they should be quarantined before being offered as snacks, but that does not exclude all live food. Blood worms, earthworms, shrimp, ect. Go take a look at Beblondies nutritional guide in the poly forum it has details on a lot of live food. Some will argue for pellets because they are so well balanced in nutrients. But changing an animals nature is not healthy either. I firmly believe that what is most healthy for a fish is that within the obvious limitations of life in a tank effort should be taken to make their lives as natural as possible. Piranha were not given razor sharp teeth to eat pellets. I don't think predatory fish should be forced - Ie trained to eat pellet food. When I kept red bellies I kept a second smaller tank in which I raised 'feeder' neon tetras. In addition to these I fed them a variety of lean human consumption grade meats.
 
Thanks for the reply, they dont actually refuse food, but when I first got them they would eat right away, now they seem to prefer I leave before finishing whats in the tank, and I make sure they finish or I scoop it out,they will not eat pellets at all, I only feed wafers maybe once every other week , and only the larger one eats them, I am having trouble getting pics to upload, so I will try again tomorrow, would it be ok to feed them salmon caught out of the river? or could there be parasites? thanks
 
heres the pics, I did my best. by the way, it had the fat belly when I bought it, they did feed a bunch of dead goldfish in fish store, but I have never seen any parasites, and the fish seems to be healthy but has started being more shy, and swimming with its nose up a little on occasion. but the fish store was very busy and its quiet here, thanks piranha lady

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would it be ok to feed them salmon caught out of the river?
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Consider all fish caught in the wild to be possible carries of parasites and possibly other pathogens. I wouldn't do it. You can find better fish for them from your local butcher. Like I said I raised neon's for mine because I read at the time that neons were a large part of their natural diet.
 
if it was parasites would the fish be doing as well as it is for this long? The other piranha's appetite is about the same, and when we bought them the smaller one had a large appetite. BUT thats when they were being fed dead goldfish! I was worried about parasites or something wrong with the insides, but I would think he would be really bad off it that was true?
 
you can try to dose the tank with parasite med such as Jungle Lab Parasite Clear just to be sure. There are also other parasite med you can try but personally I only used parasite clear from jungle lab. does the belly get smaller if you don't feel it for a day or so? or it could be a female carrying eggs.
if you concern then treat with parasite med would be a good start and stop feeding them golf fish and start with some good health food.
 
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