# lost my two biggest fish yesterday



## Uncle Jesse (Feb 18, 2007)

had both these fish over a year now
i came home and the red had white eyes so i treated with melafix and extra salt but i think i put too much salt
there skin was really soft and seemed to rub off?
is this possable? my other fish seemed to have the same problem kinda looked like fin rot 
i did a 50% water change(with out salt)
another ? is why does it seem like every other week one of my ps have that cloudy eye thing going on?

thanks


----------



## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

What kind of filtration are you running over what sized tank? Also what is the stocking?

Salt probably wouldnt of killed fish even if you added a bit to much. You would have to add tons of salt to kill them.


----------



## Uncle Jesse (Feb 18, 2007)

its a 125gal i have a rena xp4 and two AC110s 
it was a 4" piraya a 7.5" piraya two 7"terns a 7" red and two 7" carabie

any clue why i alays seem to have this eye prob?
and why there skin was like falling off? one of my carabie ran into the filter tube and it took a huge chunk of flesh off?


----------



## Corner (Feb 27, 2007)

Ammonia burn? pH burn?


----------



## philbert (Mar 8, 2007)

what are you params? i agree it sounds like amonia or pH burn.


----------



## 32791 (Aug 20, 2008)

I feel you man. I just lost 2 of my biggest females. Raised 6 of them from babies, and planned to keep them for 35years. I had to move them out of my room into a larger tank in my living room.

You know how it is when your red bellies arent ok from just a second long glance. One of mine rammed the glass, and nobody told me about it for 2 days. Said they didnt want to upset me. That cost me a second adult! It was on mothers day and they decided not to tell me.

Now i have four, instead of the ideal 6 pack schooling. They were laying eggs every 3 days for the last year too. I cared so much for them that i left all the poor babies for the filters. at the time I didnt keep any because ive got 6 tanks to care for but i would trade every ciclid, discus. loaches, plecs to get those two red bellys back.

I have this big fish encyclopedia and they rate fish on a scale of 1 to 10. besides Sea Horses which rate a 10, no other fish in the entire book comes close to the 6 they gave pirahna. My exsperience with them has proved them to be the toughest fish, and I enjoyed breaking the myth of our precious babies. Even if they did bite you would have deserved it, but every house guest stares at them like im keeping a geat white shark.

Im sure everyone on here gets a kick out of the response they get when a stranger watches you causouly reach your entire arm into their tank delicatly hearding them away with your hand to fix a decoration or something like that.

I know alot of people dont deserve them though. People around here only raise them long enough to find out that you cant just toss a mouse, snake, rat, or whatever creature they wish to just toss in expecting them to live up to the myth that people on here work hard to dispell.

Because of this i can never replace my lost females....if the remaining school of 4 would even accept them. Cant ship adults, and cant throw babies into matures adults.

Ive even raised them with plecs, eventually adding a few so they would school. glass stays clean, and its hilarious watching the plecs assert dominence. They arent affraid to take a meal away from the red bellings and often swim right into a frenzy and ram them out of his way when he pleases. lol in return they red bellies love plec wafers and they rarely reach the bottom.

Weakly water changes for 4 years and thousands of dollars maintenence. I was spending more than rent and car payment a month buying bulk from drsfostersmith.com 2 canister filters, 2 350 penquin bio wheels, canister bio wheel, acua clear 500, micron cartridge, 500 wat turbo twist UV stearalizer, electricity grounder. Perfect 6.8 Reverse Osmosis RO Water, Python vacumes to fill and vacum same time with a vacum end made for ponds 4Feet long. Decs, and lots of plastic plants.

If you want them to breed and spawn They love plastic versions of the popular live versions, for shredding into countless pieces. When they spawn you may be tempted to treat them for parasites because they flash and scratch nearly the same way. I had been stopping them from spawinging for over a year doing complete gravel vacs, parasite clear. I was vacuming their nests. Id heard they do that but you got to let them make a mess of the tank. I did lots of water changes but they seem to be able to sense the atmospheric pressure because the weather matched the theory of them sensing what time of year its. Read that on here somewhere.

This is my new user name. I saw your post and wanted to reply but i forgot my account info. sorry for going off topic but wanted you to know where im comming from.

Really sorry you lost 2 adults. I know how much work you put in to keep adults. They are irreplaceable, and until this country wises up to the fact that nobody is going to realease their pirahna into the wild. We all know why. Its a slow death sentence. Yet people keep asking me if they cant put their fish in my lake/koi pond because they will die. Moron ignored me and threw them into a small liner koi pond once he got bored with them. He was upset they wouldnt eat live mice.

Id like to adopt 2 adults, or more if anybody is moving or somthing and have no place for them to safely go.

Keep me updated on your situation and thank you for posting the thread. Helps me see past my lost school. What state you live in by the way? Are you going to get new babies?

I might as well be on the moon as far as getting new ones in my area. Small underground community want 250 to 500 per teenager.

Just thought this might be relative for you to read.
That and Ive pretended like it didnt happen until i got it out now. 
im sure in both our cases we know why it happened. Life changes and you miss regular maintences due to lazieness. it was no accident in my case. I know its my fault. If i loose my other 4 i would probably never start again.

Thank you if your reading this. Your the only ones who love pirahnas as much as I do. To most people they see all fish the same. To me. Im going out in handcuffs if they try to ever take my babies.

Good luck. Im off to read some more posts. See if i cant move on and see about replacements.


----------



## 32791 (Aug 20, 2008)

Oh almost forgot. Yes the White clooudy eyes, and whiteness on their skin means the water is fouled and you should drop everything and do an emergency large water change, vacum, and throw in some liquid ammonia neutralizer.

I stopped my habbit of counting them daily and the first one that died wasnt noticed by the person i had left in charge of feeding. It detereorated to the point that the water was so fouled they had soft white skin and eyes blinded.

Do you use a python power vac with high water pressure. Mine did their best when id do like a 500% 4 hour water change. filling and gravel vacuming while draining. They are messy, but ive never had them so happy swimming all over the tank, going around a decoration rock like its a merrygo round. That and spawning.

Keep some prime. amquel, a python hose, Seachem stick on ammonia/PH color real time meters. The best PH is a constant PH so dont tweak it. They are better off if you only use water changes with your regular water to restore a balance. Keep the temp down a little too if they a sickly. High temps make everything more toxic. PH below 7 makes ammonia...ammonium which wont hurt your fish.

Its good to keep a 100pack of Parasite clear. 1 tab per 10 gallons. Safe for red bellies. All goldfish harbor parasites, no matter waht the petstore says so costco jumbo shrimp work great for adults. Color bits when small/blood words. plec wafers, chicken breast. People food.

I was wondering how many filters you got? I usually add 5 times more than recommended. BIO wheels and prime are what Kept my fish alive untill i got my tank ballanced. Test strips good too. disregard recommendations for small 25 percent water changes. The more the better...If i could rig it the y would love a 24hour 365days a year inflow/ outflow constantly chanding the water.

in fact ive found you can save a ton of money by just using water changes to clean your tank with filters to circulate,areate, and let you go longer between them.

p.s. pm me if you can get me 2+ reds. ill adapt depending on size and i promise....you will like my response to your kindness.

Thanks again for all the threads and posts. Im getting use to trusting this site. But i would be lying if i said i wasnt concerned about privacy.


----------

