# My Piranha is leaning to the left !



## Louis (May 17, 2003)

Hello all, my name is Louis and I'm from the Netherlands.

Since 2,5 years I have a Piranha, I believe it's a red belly, in the beginning I had about 4 Piranha's from about 4cm, but one eat all the other one's, I bought every month a new Piranha since he would'nt eat anything exept Piranha's







later he ate goldfish and other fish.

But what I don't understand is why they keep leaning to the left, the Ph has got to be around 5-6 they told me, but then they lean even more, If I refresh the water with Tap water and the ph is around or above 7 they don't lean but the next day they lean again.

Every fish has done that in my aquarium, and now I still have left only 1 Piranha and he leans now for 2,5 years because I can't figure it out why.

And another question, I saw the video's from xenon and their you can see that the piranha's eat a goldfish very fast since their are more piranha's, if I feed my piranha a goldfish he bites a piece of him and a day later he eat's the rest. very nasty !
That is because he is alone and knows that he has the whole fish for him alone.

Is their any way how I can add a new Piranha ?

My piranha is about 20cm and a new one would be about 4cm, so is it possible to give him some friends?

Thanks !!


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## InSinUAsian (Jan 3, 2003)

Sometimes fish are known to lean toward external light sources. In the wild, they are natually in a vertical position becaue the sun provides the greatest amount of light which is directly overhead. Now, when in the aquarium they also do this, but if the greatest light sourse is outside the tank, perhaps they might lean toward whatever it might be. Understand? I think I heard this somewhere, but I might be wrong.

~Dj


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

It's hard to say why he is eating the other piranhas. Maybe trade him for a different one. Looks to me he is a bad seed. Unless he is a different piranha species.


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## Louis (May 17, 2003)

thanks !

I dont have the light's on because when I swith the light on the Piranha is getting wild, he turn white with red eye's and is bouncing to the glass to get out of the bright but the light isn't very bright.

The light he is getting is from outside, some sunlight from a glass door, maybe that would be the reason.

And about that eating brothers and sisters, what would happen if I place a big glass jar inside my normal tank/aquarium and place 2 new 4cm pirnaha's with on to some lid with holes, so they can see eachother but not bite eachother, and after a week orso I remove the jar.

Stupid or do you say : go for it !

Louis


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

Well, you are talking a huge size difference, I dont see that happening no matter what you try to do. You could get rid of the big guy and get all smaller dudes. 
Another question, are you sure your piranha is a red belly? This may be a stupid question but if he is a serra it would explain why he eats his room mates.


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Ps have a nack of leaning towrds their sides, especially Rhoms, but Im uncertain about Red Bellies. I would have to say the changes you've stated with your water conditions might be a factor, and is causing stress. Plus would you be able to provide us info on your filteration system?

What size is your tank?? The size difference that your adding to your tank may cause the present resident of the tank to get aggressive and kill off any newly introduced ones. Hes been in there for a long while and established the whole tank as his territory. You might want to get newly added Ps around the same size and arrange decors and lower temps at the same time. Plus having a shoal of Ps can be more impressive than having just one to see the true beauty of what these guys can do.

One last thing.. If you can, try and post a picture of your badboy. A picture can help way better than describing it or us giving you the best answers to your questions.


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## Louis (May 17, 2003)

I'll take a picture as soon as possibe.

I will not trade my piranha since he is my favorite one, I like him







I about 5 black piranha's and he didn't eat them since they were very vast and hiding, I sold all my stuff exept this piranha so I will not bring my "buddy"away









Within 2 weeks I move to another house and I will place my piranha in another tank in a new house maybe that is a good time to add a few new piranha's.

( sorry I dunno what you meant In your quote)


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## Louis (May 17, 2003)

Like I said their is not very much light so I couldn't take a very clear pic.

as you can see he is leaning to the left.


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## Louis (May 17, 2003)

another picture.

his belly was red, so I thought it was a red belly but now I'm not sure anymore, so who can tell ?


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Louis.. it does definately look like a PYGO, but with the bad lighting in the pix and color, it looks like a Piraya. Im seeing a discoloration of the belly being pale and white. Sure signs of stress or being sick. I suggest for you do do a thorough check with your water perimeters.


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## thePACK (Jan 3, 2003)

it looks like pygo..natt..and he has the gangsta lean......when you add new fish do you move all item around??


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## SnowCichlid (Jan 10, 2003)

that looks like a sleep(inactive mode) posistion sometimes you can catch your fish in weird posistions when "napping" 
...how often is it like this?


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## LouiCypher (Mar 10, 2003)

I've been told that leaning can be a sign of stress. I would say you have some nicely matured red bellies. They turn a goldish color after maturity.

Here's a pic of what mine look like now. 7" or about 20cm. Look like yours? If so, you have a red.


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## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

LouiCypher said:


> I've been told that leaning can be a sign of stress.


 Bingo! It's a apprehensive reaction to...whatever. Alot of fish do this, not just piranhas. I've seen oscars actually lay flat on their side.

If it bothers you that much then, tilt YOUR head to the right.


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## Louis (May 17, 2003)

I'm not sure if mine is the same as the picture above, mine has the same shape and stuff but not the gold color.

I have a mpeg video from a year ago, eating a goldfish about 2,3mb but I must find a host first.
In that mpeg you can see the P better.

I also think my P looks sad and white from stress, but that was because I was shining a bright light while he just woke up from his sleep.

I have a few more question which I couldn't find with the search button, and don't want to start a whole new topic.

1. What is the max. age of a Piranha ?

2. Is around 7ph good ?

3. 26 degrees celcius is that a good Temp. ?

Ps. i remember something now, that leaning DOES happen even more when the PH is getting to low, someday I was adding some rainwater wich was about Ph5 and they lean very much, also when adding the stuff to bring the Ph down to 5, like I said when I add fresh tap water with the ph of 8 they swim normal, but the ph8 is not good for piranha is it ?


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## Louis (May 17, 2003)

@SnowCichlid like I said he is doing this for 2,5 years, I know that almost every fish act like this when sleeping but my P is doing this 24hours a day.

I did test the water a few minutes ago and this is the result, It doens't look good does it ?

The one below is the PH, above the PH is the KH


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