# Serving Size And Calorie Intake



## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

We all love to watch out piranhas to eat and we all want our piranhas to be health and all but does anyone know how much calorie intake does our fish need? 
Some may frequently feed fish in an eat all you can eat "buffet style", maybe it's necessary to keep aggression down or just love to watch a good feeding frenzy, some of us stuff pellet in food to provide a more balanced nutrient to the fish but do we know much fat is building up inside our fish from all those extra food that our fish doesn't need but were given? all those fat can't necessary be good for them.
Portion control can be difficult with a pygo shoal but does anyone keep solo fish control serving size? especially when you stuff food with pellets? do you reduce the portion size to balance out the overall calorie intake?


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

I usually do about a medium shrimp sized portion per adult pygo per serving. Im not sure what would be the Ideal amount but I just go by how they look and adjust accordingly. I'd do mayby 2-3 servings per 3 weeks though even onewould suffice.

Samething goes for me, I don't calorie count but If im gaining excess weight just cut back abit. I think it will be hard to get an overweight fish unless your feeding alot of oily fish like salmon or mammilian organ meats.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

I've never had a piranha that would gorge themselves except pygos. I watch how much I feed them as I don't like the fat pygo look. I let em eat what they want but ill wait 2-4 days between feeding. Depends on what I fed last. All my serras(singles & groups) eat one worm, I silver side or two, ect but I've never seen them fill up like pygos. They never stuff themselves even on minnow day. Hard to count calories when that stuff isn't labeled on packages of pellets, silversides, ect.


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

Probably I should rephrase, I'm not try to do calorie count as no one knows how much calorie one fish would burn. 
here's an example, a rhom gets feed one large smelt once a week. the owner started to stuff pellets into the smelt, should he feed just partial of the smelt or still feed the whole smelt?
I never cut open a piranha before so I'm not sure where will they build up their fat reserve but I have seen plenty farm raised fish vs wild caught fish, the farm raised fish have a lot of fat in the stomach wall area and there's barely any in the wild caught fish. 
it might not show any external sign but there could be certain amount of fat build up which great pressure on the organs.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

I do think most keepers feed to often. And it does change their appearance. As does water current. Wild fish seem more streamlined than captives. Our tank fish are couch potatoes to the wild athletes.


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