# Do piranhas grow back their teeth?



## Bongkers5000 (Jan 13, 2009)

just picked up a black diamond hes about 8 inches. and hes pretty skinny. looks like he hasnt been feed in weeks. i noticed that the only teeth he has or at least i can see are 4 on the left side of he lower lip. do their teeth grow back and would missing teeth cause him nt to eat?


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## Piranha Guru (Nov 24, 2005)

They constantly shed their teeth. They do so one half of the upper and lower at a time.


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## need_redz (May 11, 2007)

yes they do grow back!


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## cobrafox46 (Jun 2, 2008)

BioTeAcH said:


> They constantly shed their teeth. They do so one half of the upper and lower at a time.


That is interesting....... I never knew they did it that way.


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## OneEyedPiranhaGuy (Sep 30, 2005)

I sometimes collect the teeth that fall to the top of the gravel in my pygo tank.
I have yet to find any teeth from my 4-5" Sanchezi though.


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## Smoogle (Jan 8, 2009)

^^oh, I forgot piranha shed their whole jaws too!^^


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## OneEyedPiranhaGuy (Sep 30, 2005)

Hah, the jaws are from when 2 of my red bellies died


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## robert69 (Jul 16, 2005)

Funny, I never see any of the teeth that my fish shed on the gravel. Does anyone else see their fish teeth after they shed?


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## cobrafox46 (Jun 2, 2008)

^^Yeah I used to grab them all the time from my Mac! I just picked 2 of my Armatus's teeth out of the sand Sunday. I would say they would be tough to find in gravel or light colored sand.


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

nope ive had a 5 inch sanchezi for almost 2 years and i havent found a single tooth, maybe shedding teeth is a maturity thing like how we do it.


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## blbig50 (Jan 1, 2009)

At what age or size do they start to shed them?


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## Plum (May 4, 2006)

OneEyedPiranhaGuy said:


> I sometimes collect the teeth that fall to the top of the gravel in my pygo tank.
> I have yet to find any teeth from my 4-5" Sanchezi though.
> 
> View attachment 178499
> ...


nice pics of the teeth! i will keep my eye out since i do not have white sand anymore. thanks for sharing.


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## blbig50 (Jan 1, 2009)

Do juvies shed teeth?


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

I had no Idea p's did that, Thanks for this


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## db04ph (Jan 27, 2009)

same had no idea
yet to find some teeth of my elong


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## OneEyedPiranhaGuy (Sep 30, 2005)

Also, I've noticed that when I do gravel vacs, there's always some teeth that end up getting crushed/smashed and turning into tiny pieces that get siphoned out with the dirty water. The plus side is that sometimes when I do gravel vacs, the ones that don't get smashed end up falling ontop of the gravel since they are lighter than the gravel. Then I can just pick them up with a net right off the top. I should add though that the bigger teeth come from my 9-10" red belly, so he sheds good sized teeth from his bottom jaw. Would be harder to spot teeth from smaller P's I assume.


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## Rough996 (Oct 3, 2006)

fine black substrate is excellent to see and recover the teeth from. If you have gravel, the teeth are more than likely at the bottom of your tank.

I DID NOT KNOW that they shed half of each row at a time, but I can believe that, because I've fished out 7 teeth from my 14" rhom's tank in a three day span... had me worried for a second, but this new information puts my mind at ease... not to mention, the new teeth have already come back in.


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## OneEyedPiranhaGuy (Sep 30, 2005)

Rough996 said:


> fine black substrate is excellent to see and recover the teeth from. If you have gravel, the teeth are more than likely at the bottom of your tank.
> 
> I DID NOT KNOW that they shed half of each row at a time, but I can believe that, because I've fished out 7 teeth from my 14" rhom's tank in a three day span... had me worried for a second, but this new information puts my mind at ease... not to mention, the new teeth have already come back in.


Ya, they shed half of each row at a time so that they can always have some teeth in their mouth to use if needed. Also, if your P hits the wall of the tank too hard, he could knock out some teeth, so they need good regenerative abilities in their teeth. After all, the teeth are what they're known for


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