skiddish rbp dies :(

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Nerfday96

Nerfday96

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 10, 2006
37
3
8
Philadelphia
i originally bought 3 rbp's, all about 1/2 inch in size. after my latest water change and gravel cleaning, which ended up being about a 60% water change because i had some trouble operating my gravel cleaner and hosed to much water out of the tank, the fish started reacting poorly, and being quite skittish, i immediately assumed this was just him getting reaquainted. from day one he was the odd one out and the other 2 stuck together. but up until the last water change they never bothered him, they started to bite at him after this last water change and then today i found him dead in the tank sitting upside down in the gravel at the bottom with some pretty big chunks out of his back fin. do you think this is just as a result of stress and the other two are ok, or should i be concerned the other two will share the same fate. here are some pics of the dead rbp. thanks sad.gif

the other two are still fine and acting as they did before the water change, this was the only one who acted differently.

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Nerfday, First off check your water levels.. If everything is perfect thats one less problem to worry about... A rule of thumb with piranhas, buy one or more than 4... Anything under 4, exclueding one, maybe two will end up in bullieing most of the time. Also piranha's will eat the weak and live by the "code" of only the strong will survive.
Several books, and fish keepers will say 5 for the most part is the magic number with RBP's. I have 4 due to transportation miss hap and there showing normal signs in nature, 3 shoal and 1 is always left out.. Lucky for me the one left out is bigger than the others and they tend to leave him alone, however I keep mine WELL fed untill I can get another one or two, to make up for my loss. Otherwise I have no doubt in my mind he would be bullied till he dies or ate.

So my advise is get yourself 3 more, or make sure your other two are well fed.
 
if i were to get 3 more, can i still house them in this little 10g till they get bigger, i don't want to put 5 fish that are all less than 1/2 an inch into a 75 gallon tank, i'd never see them.
 
Nerfday96;474528; said:
if i were to get 3 more, can i still house them in this little 10g till they get bigger, i don't want to put 5 fish that are all less than 1/2 an inch into a 75 gallon tank, i'd never see them.
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Gee don't do that, 10g is way too small. I say get a bigger tank and get more fish, or try your luck like this. Nevertheless you should move them to a bigger tank... 60% in a 10g, that leaves what 4g of water? No wonder they got stressed...

If you don't want to invest in a 75g now, get a 30g. You can grow them in there for a few months, until you have bigger.
 
I took them out when i was doing the water change and cleaning the gravel and put them in my hospital tank for abuot 20 minutes, putting them back into 10 gallons of water after the change was complete....i think i'm giong to try my luck like this with 2 of them in 10 gallons and then move up to 75 gal in a few months nad add 3 more for 5 total in 75 gallons...thanks
 
I hope they are fine mate, always a shame to lose a fish.
 
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