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## FretsOnFire00 (Sep 10, 2009)

Not somethin you want to wake up to...

Well this is my first loss since i started keeping piranhas









I knew it was gonna happen sooner or later, this guy is the runt of the pack and has always been picked on. For somereason about 2 months ago he just stopped growing, ate alot but still wasn't growing. The last two weeks hes been hiding behind some plants in the corner by himself. Well anyway, crap


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

LOL, all they left was the head.


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## Winkyee (Feb 17, 2003)

That bites..
How big was he compared to the other guys?


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## FretsOnFire00 (Sep 10, 2009)

When i purchased all 7 they were the same size, about the size of a nickel, and at time of death he was half the size of the largest one. My beast is about 5 inches the majority are 4 inches and the runt was about 2.5-3 inches.

Well since hes got no other use I think im gonna dry him and keep the skull, cool to look at his teeth up close.

f*ck... i was really planning on keeping all of them haha, the joys of piranha care....

I gotta say the funny part was i woke up, rolled over, and saw my 6 inch pleco knawing on his head. Since i was half asleep my first thought was the pleco killed him.

Plecos killing piranhas signs of the apocalypse


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## Buckman (Jan 10, 2007)

boil the head to keep the skull, don't bother drying it. sorry for your loss but thats part of keeping pygos my friend. thats why i'm a proud rhom owner.


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## FretsOnFire00 (Sep 10, 2009)

Boil it? for how long?


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Yeah, I'm pretty familiar with the "Only a head left" routine...
You'll see more of this the longer you stay in the hobby.

Sorry for the loss though.


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

speakyourmind said:


> LOL, all they left was the head.


LMFAO.


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## PDOGGY (Apr 17, 2008)

FretsOnFire00 said:


> Boil it? for how long?


Bring the water to a boil, then add the piranha head and then add some baking soda. The baking soda makes the flesh and meat turn to a jelly like substance that is way easier to scrape off! If you don't use baking soda, it is nothing like jelly and more like muscle that is a lot of work! Boil for about 15-20 mins, scrape then if needed boil again for 10 mins then scrape. Post up final pics!


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Or you could just preserve the whole head...

I've got about 7 piranhas perfectly preserved, and a head also.

One of these days I'm gonna find the perfect bogwood and mount it all in a "Feeding frenzy" pose with the appearance that the 7 piranha are eating a dead piranha.


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## Buckman (Jan 10, 2007)

Piranha_man said:


> Or you could just preserve the whole head...
> 
> I've got about 7 piranhas perfectly preserved, and a head also.
> 
> One of these days I'm gonna find the perfect bogwood and mount it all in a "Feeding frenzy" pose with the appearance that the 7 piranha are eating a dead piranha.


why not eating a dead cat? you stuffed that sucker right?


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

That would be much better!

But alas, I have no cat, let alone a dead one, let alone a preserved one.


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## BanditBrother (Nov 8, 2003)

Sorry for your loss man!!!! U gna replece it??


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## FretsOnFire00 (Sep 10, 2009)

No i'm not gonna replace him, my tank was getting over stocked anyone I WAS going to sell him and another one but a lil too late.

And piranha man if you had 7 mummy piranhas eating a mummy cat on your wall...... don't expect to see to many guests come back a second time haha


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

^^ Guests? What are those?


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## Buckman (Jan 10, 2007)

Piranha_man said:


> That would be much better!
> 
> But alas, I have no cat, let alone a dead one, let alone a preserved one.


shoulda kept the one you found under that house.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Buckman said:


> That would be much better!
> 
> But alas, I have no cat, let alone a dead one, let alone a preserved one.


shoulda kept the one you found under that house.








[/quote]

Damn!
Never thought of that! (burp!)


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## Ja'eh (Jan 8, 2007)

Holy crap they left only lips and eye balls of the little guy. This is the shitty part of owning pygos, you never know when one is going to get wacked, well there's usually some signs leading to a death occurring like in your case but a lot of times it just happens out of the blue.


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## FretsOnFire00 (Sep 10, 2009)

Well PDOGGY i followed your instruction exactly, when i pulled out the head after 20 minutes it basically disentigrated in my hand, skull and all. Well I tried...


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## PDOGGY (Apr 17, 2008)

FretsOnFire00 said:


> Well PDOGGY i followed your instruction exactly, when i pulled out the head after 20 minutes it basically disentigrated in my hand, skull and all. Well I tried...


I kinda worried about that, being such a small specimen. I am a taxidermist for a living and use this method on deer/elk/buffalo or any big game stuff. However, some piranha skulls have been a challenge to clean up for me so I thought you would be ok. Oh well, being so small it can be really touchy and challenging as you found.


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## FretsOnFire00 (Sep 10, 2009)

It's alright no big loss, are you supposed to wait for it to completely cool before you start scraping? I was wondering afterwards that that might allow to bones to harden more.


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## frankie09c (Aug 21, 2009)

sorry for your loss. I haven't lost one yet, got a feeling if i don't free some space i will.


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## PDOGGY (Apr 17, 2008)

FretsOnFire00 said:


> It's alright no big loss, are you supposed to wait for it to completely cool before you start scraping? I was wondering afterwards that that might allow to bones to harden more.


You can wait, problem is though is that everything starts to harden and becomes difficult to remove once again. Not sure how much baking soda you used but, with a head this small just a pinch would be sufficient most likely.


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## FretsOnFire00 (Sep 10, 2009)

uh i used about a half a cup since u didn't specify haha.


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## Buckman (Jan 10, 2007)

might have been a little much haha


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## PDOGGY (Apr 17, 2008)

FretsOnFire00 said:


> uh i used about a half a cup since u didn't specify haha.


Oh shoot, my bad. Yea I only use about 2 tablespoons for a big game animal! Problem with soda ash is that too much for too long, equals vanished product! However, if you do it right it makes the job 100X easier and quick!!!!


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## TJcali (Mar 27, 2009)

This just happend to me last week I had 11 RBP and now I only have 10 I counted them like 5 times I just couldnt believe it and like

your situation it was the smallest one had gotten eaten but with the difference that mine didnt leave sh*t of evedence


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