TetraCichlid Food...

[Sean]

I bought this food last night at Wally Mart so that I could further
deversify my Piranha's diet. They seem to love the stuff and are quite
aggressive towards it. The feeding instructions say that the fish should be
fed 2-3 times daily as much as they can eat in a few minutes. Thing is that
when I first started feeding them I gave them chunk after chunk and they ate
and ate for about five minutes. I gave them more about six hours later with
the same amount of time and roughly the same amount of food. They eat it
all up within seconds. I have no exprience in feeding these fish
"bought/processed" food. I usually feed them live fish, crickets, and raw
meats. Is this too much food? Or is it healthy seeings how they eat
everything almost instantly?

Sean

[boris]

Sounds to me like you have very healthy pirhana there mate mine never
ate like that! mine died a couple of weeks ago,thinking about getting
another but feel i need more advice about how best to keep it and what
are the best foods to feed it???? when i bought it it was only 1/4 inch
long and when it died after about 2yrs it was still only 2inches long
please help graham

[boris]

Sounds to me like you have very healthy pirhana there mate mine never
ate like that! mine died a couple of weeks ago,thinking about getting
another but feel i need more advice about how best to keep it and what
are the best foods to feed it???? when i bought it it was only 1/4 inch
long and when it died after about 2yrs it was still only 2inches long
please help graham

[boris]

Sounds to me like you have very healthy pirhana there mate mine never
ate like that! mine died a couple of weeks ago,thinking about getting
another but feel i need more advice about how best to keep it and what
are the best foods to feed it???? when i bought it it was only 1/4 inch
long and when it died after about 2yrs it was still only 2inches long
please help graham

[Sean]

"boris" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Sounds to me like you have very healthy pirhana there mate mine never
> ate like that! mine died a couple of weeks ago,thinking about getting
> another but feel i need more advice about how best to keep it and what
> are the best foods to feed it???? when i bought it it was only 1/4 inch
> long and when it died after about 2yrs it was still only 2inches long
> please help graham


For Starters you need at least a 50G tank (100G is better). You should get
about 5-6 fish. When in a group they are less stressed and as a result much
more healthy. Feed them whatever raw meat you can get (the bloodier the
better, as this is where the nutrients are). Make sure you take out any
food immediately after feeding them. If you don't the water will turn and
you will have some ill fish. Piranha require more water changes and
cleaning then most fish. Its good to look after the tank at least once a
week. I keep my water temp at 27C and use an O2 pump every other day for
about 4 hours to get O2 into the water in case they need it. Live plants
are a must with these fish. They are great for taking in and holding all
the junk that may get into your water from messy feedings and waste. The
fish also need them as a supplement to their diet. Make sure your lighting
isn't too bright. These fish live naturally jungle/swamp-like rivers where
the waters are a tad murky and sunlight just doesn't reach them so
intensely. Use brownish colored substrate or rock and add some wood for
them to hide in. Make so you have a powerful filter, as I mentioned before
they are very messy and you will need it to keep everything in check.


That's all I can think of now. I'll get back to you if I think of anything
else.



Sean

[Daniel Morrow]

Bottom posted.
Sean wrote:
> I bought this food last night at Wally Mart so that I could further
> deversify my Piranha's diet. They seem to love the stuff and are
> quite aggressive towards it. The feeding instructions say that the
> fish should be fed 2-3 times daily as much as they can eat in a few
> minutes. Thing is that when I first started feeding them I gave them
> chunk after chunk and they ate and ate for about five minutes. I
> gave them more about six hours later with the same amount of time and
> roughly the same amount of food. They eat it all up within seconds.
> I have no exprience in feeding these fish "bought/processed" food. I
> usually feed them live fish, crickets, and raw meats. Is this too
> much food? Or is it healthy seeings how they eat everything almost
> instantly?
>
> Sean

I don't have any magic words for you sean but I would point out that the
instructions on a lot of food packaging for fish cause most fish to either
overeat or cause a lot of pollution. For the generic (if there is indeed
such a thing in this diverse hobby) fish enough for them to eat in half or
one whole minute is enough once or at most twice a day. I am pretty sure
from my reading of an older tropical fish book piranhas are in the same
grouping as tetras and are not directly related to cichlids but your food is
probably the closest thing you can get to optimum prepared foods for your
piranhas. Good luck and nd later! P.s. - everyone else = keep in mind that I
think sean wants to built his own giant tank because even a 130 gallon tank
can look tiny for big fish like piranhas and building it is almost certainly
cheaper for sean considering the particular size and shape he wants (i.e.
the only other way to get a tank with those dimensions commercially is to
have one custom built which would cost many times the amount of him doing it
himself, even including the models he might make first).

[NetMax]

"Sean" > wrote in message
...
>I bought this food last night at Wally Mart so that I could further
>deversify my Piranha's diet. They seem to love the stuff and are quite
>aggressive towards it. The feeding instructions say that the fish
>should be fed 2-3 times daily as much as they can eat in a few minutes.
>Thing is that when I first started feeding them I gave them chunk after
>chunk and they ate and ate for about five minutes. I gave them more
>about six hours later with the same amount of time and roughly the same
>amount of food. They eat it all up within seconds. I have no exprience
>in feeding these fish "bought/processed" food.

How many do you have and what size tank? You're lucky they are eating
processed foods (easier for you), but they will still need a diverse
diet. Look closely at their sides before eating and then after eating.
Dried processed foods can swell with water, so too big a meal can be
harmfull to the fish. Most fish are eating organic matter and fibre &
meat does not expand like food from a can.

> I usually feed them live fish, crickets, and raw meats. Is this too
> much food?

A small bulge is ok, any more and you should reduce the size of the
individual feeding. How many times you feed is really up to you. Most
fish get along very well with two feedings. The more you give, the
faster the tank will get polluted, so you have to do more water changes.
If you feed a lot AND keep the water very clean, they will grow faster
than if you fed less, but controlling the water's pollution is important.
The least polluting fish are small inactive herbivores (like Otos) and
the most polluting fish are large active carnivores (you guessed it ;~).

As for what you are feeding, a diverse diet is best. You can add
earthworms to your list and most bugs (stay away from anything with
venom, like bees and spiders). They don't seem to care for fuzzy insects
like moths.

> Or is it healthy seeings how they eat everything almost instantly?

It is a sign of health, though with Piranhas, these fish are generally
quite hardy and voracious eaters. As was already mentioned, plants
(especially floating and throw a couple of dry oak leaves in there too),
quiet corner for the tank, reduced lighting will all make your fish more
relaxed (very important imo). Water temperature also governs their
metabolism (appetite) so slightly cooler water will reduce the feeding
aggression a bit.
--
www.NetMax.tk

> Sean

[Sean]

> I don't have any magic words for you sean but I would point out that the
> instructions on a lot of food packaging for fish cause most fish to either
> overeat or cause a lot of pollution. For the generic (if there is indeed
> such a thing in this diverse hobby) fish enough for them to eat in half or
> one whole minute is enough once or at most twice a day. I am pretty sure
> from my reading of an older tropical fish book piranhas are in the same
> grouping as tetras and are not directly related to cichlids but your food
> is
> probably the closest thing you can get to optimum prepared foods for your
> piranhas.

I have settled to feeding them a few chunks twice a day. The water isn't
fouling and their waste hasn't increased. I just wasn't sure if this was
the proper feeding style, as I said before this is the first processed food
they have eaten and I usually don't go by what's on the can because they
will say whatever to get you back as fast as possible for more product ;)

Sean

[Sean]

> How many do you have and what size tank?



6 in a 55g...



>You're lucky they are eating processed foods (easier for you), but they
>will still need a diverse diet.



Oh yes, of course. I was merely expanding and what they already have. I
give them tomatoes (chopped with no seed), pork, beef, chicken, fish, live
fish, crickets, earthworms in the summer and sometimes meatballs (I usually
sneak some onion, romaine lettuce and a bit of garlic in there).




> Look closely at their sides before eating and then after eating. Dried
> processed foods can swell with water, so too big a meal can be harmful to
> the fish.



I figured that too but wasn't sure how much. I have it figured out now
though after the first feeding. Their sides puff at just a bit, its hardly
noticeable. The sides puff way out when I give them live fish, to the point
that you can actually see the outline of the fish inside (I have a great pic
of that). I don't feed them live fish more then once every two weeks for
fear of sickness and waste.



Most fish are eating organic matter and fiber &
> meat does not expand like food from a can.

Yep. I figured anything with the word freeze-dried would be a sponge and
expand.


>> I usually feed them live fish, crickets, and raw meats. Is this too
>> much food?
>
> A small bulge is ok, any more and you should reduce the size of the
> individual feeding. How many times you feed is really up to you. Most
> fish get along very well with two feedings.



That's what I have been giving them, twice a day, only what they can eat in
a minute and a half.



> The more you give, the faster the tank will get polluted, so you have to
> do more water changes. If you feed a lot AND keep the water very clean,
> they will grow faster than if you fed less, but controlling the water's
> pollution is important. The least polluting fish are small inactive
> herbivores (like Otos) and the most polluting fish are large active
> carnivores (you guessed it ;~).
>
> As for what you are feeding, a diverse diet is best. You can add
> earthworms to your list and most bugs (stay away from anything with venom,
> like bees and spiders). They don't seem to care for fuzzy insects like
> moths.
>
>> Or is it healthy seeings how they eat everything almost instantly?
>
> It is a sign of health, though with Piranhas, these fish are generally
> quite hardy and voracious eaters. As was already mentioned, plants
> (especially floating and throw a couple of dry oak leaves in there too)



I have live plants that they seem to love to nibble on quite a lot. One guy
actually ate a perfectly healthy plant right down to the roots over a 5 day
stint. I was not pleased. I think he did it for badness, or maybe he just
didn't like the way it looked ;)




> quiet corner for the tank,



Check, I figured they would need that in the event that they would fight a
lot (I hadn't kept Piranha before and didn't know if they were always
fighting or not) but they get along swimmingly, though the algae eater that
I had purchased with them can't say the same.





reduced lighting will all make your fish more
> relaxed (very important imo).



Check on that too, I purchased some of those plants that release leaves (or
whatever they are, they look like leaves) that float to the top of the tank
and dangle roots down. They cover a lot of the direct light from the lamp I
have, its a low light lamp for amazonian fish, it casts an almost
purple/brown light (hard to explain it).





Water temperature also governs their
> metabolism (appetite) so slightly cooler water will reduce the feeding
> aggression a bit.



I run the temp at 27c and have had no sickness or weird behavior so I am
very reluctant to change that.




Sean