regrowth and more

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nancy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 20, 2005
8
0
0
42
Chicago
Hi everyone im a new member, I have three red bellied piranhas and i love them! I was wondering if anyone had any information on a couple of things,

1. the regrowth of the fins and tails of piranhas, Mine have done this several times, they bite at each other alot and their fins grow back pretty fast, one of my piranhas got bit on his head, and that healed pretty quickly w/o me doing anything to the water

2. i live in the south side of chicago does anyone know of a pet shop where they have good deals on logs and plants for my tank, its pretty plain right now and i dont think my fish are happy, i want to make it look amozonian

3. i feed my fish beefheart, is this better than feeder fish?

i have never had piranhas before, ive had other fish, like fancy goldfish and they lasted a real long time, i care about my fish and want to make them as happy as they can be!
 
Please try to repost with out the pink I'm sure you will get a few more replys some people are color blind I know It sounds crazy but it's true they are out there,ok feeders aren't good they carry lots of disease,try krill,shrimp,any fish fellet uncooked of coarse mix up the menu,try posting wanted on the buy\sell someone might be able to help you out. GOOD LUCK
 
Order plants online, and get rocks/wood at garden supply centers. LFS prices are stupid for that kind of stuff.
 
Hiya nancy, welcome to MFK, as teethkeeper says, some of us are colorblind, I am having a very hard time seeing the blue against the grey.
Piranha heal quickly, if they are not killed outright they generally heal. they also live for many years.
I don't know anything about your area.
I like a mixed diet rather than just one staple, beefheart is not bad but you should trim as much of the fat as you can, raw filleted cat fish and perch, uncooked shrimp, clams, and such are good to if your fish don't get to picky, most piranha eat pretty much anything. Hikari pellets are good. Many piranha will eat earthworms and small live shimp and crayfish, they love live crickets.
If you use feeders it is better to avoid the mass raised feeder goldfish because most are raised under crowded conditions and also contain very high copper levels, bait minnows, guppies, and mollies are a better choice, it is aslo a good idea to keep a tub or 2 of feeders in filtered tubs full of salted water (2 tsp salt/1 gal water) for 2 wks before using, that gets rid of many of the parasites they might carry. Feed them color enhancing high quality flakes during that time.
2 filtered plastic 40g tubs each filled with 20-30g of water and several bunches of elodea can be kept in your garage or laundry room and stocked with cheap guppies or better yet mollies will produce enough young to give your piranha an occasional safe treat.
 
cant really add much more than guppy but a balanced fish based diet ie whitebait,shrimp etc and pellets are a much better food source than beefheart.
and yes piraha heal amazingly quick.
welcome to MFK
 
Guppy answered everything. Hey Guppy were you ever on pfury? Very knowledgable
 
Nope, never been there. Just kept a few over the years.
 
My piranhas have grown very quickly and they do heal amazingly fast. I have one that only has one eye and he is fine. I think they tend to pick on eachother more if they are hungry so keep them well-fed. A varied diet is always best with any fish and I have read that a piranhas diet should consist more of fish meat than mammal meat because that is what they would mostly eat in the wild. I don't feed mine live fish anymore. I buy raw uncooked shrimp (peel first for less mess), raw catfish meat, earthworms, shrimp pellets, hikari pellets (don't like as much), and the occasional thawed mouse. Stick with white meat fish (less messy). Mine are about 5 inches now and I feed them every 2-3 days. Be sure to remove any uneaten food and do frequent water changes as they are messy fish.
 
Hiya serpentwolf, welcome to MFK. I agree with you on the diet except I still like feeder fish as well, quarantined and salt treated.
 
Thanks for the welcome. I'm sure live fish are very beneficial to the captive diet of piranhas but I guess I'm just too paranoid about internal parasites and the like. How long do you quarentine your feeders for? I think I'm to lazy/impatient to do that and the fact that I already have too many tanks doesn't help. I've also heard that goldfish really aren't the best choice for feeder fish (something about their nutritional value). Of course there are always rosies and guppies. Crayfish would be cool. Perhaps I will try harder to offer mine some live fish every once in a while for variety.
 
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