# Starving you P



## asahin (Aug 25, 2006)

Starving you P

First off, kudos to Team PFury for maintaining a wonderful site, and to all the members for your informative/interesting posts.

As I read through the posts trying to educate my self in the world of Ps, I see many of you recommending not starving your P, which I agree with 100%. My question is what defines "starving." How many days/weeks of not feeding would you consider the limit to starving them? B/C some of the posts I was reading said that Ps can go 1 - 2 months without feeding, if that is in fact true? I know many of us have to keep our P's full to avoid cannibalism. But assuming that your tank is not packed, and/or you have one in its own tank, what do you think? What is your feeding regimen? What has/has not worked for you?

Thanks in advance.


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

The reason to starve your P is to get him to switch to another type of food. If that's your reason, cannibalism is a problem. I'd withhold food for a week and try to feed, if they still won't eat, wait a few more days then repeat. In the meantime, monitor your Ps for fin nipping.


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## mikfleye (Jul 27, 2006)

id say the limit is when he croaks lol jk jk ^^^^ read what he said, its right


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## 2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY (Nov 1, 2005)

piranha can go without food can be days, weeks, or up to a month with out food..starving your piranha on with you want to switch and train them to eat new food. other then that i don't good to starve your piranha..it will stunt their grow rate also.


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## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

rchan11 said:


> The reason to starve your P is to get him to switch to another type of food. If that's your reason, cannibalism is a problem. I'd withhold food for a week and try to feed, if they still won't eat, wait a few more days then repeat. In the meantime, monitor your Ps for fin nipping.


Agreed


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## Mr. Hannibal (Feb 21, 2003)

IMO it depends on your Ps fat reserve size... if your P is emaciated you shoudn't starve it... if your Ps looks normal (including fat reserve on the dorsum area) they can resist a long period without food... you should also keep in mind young (baby/juvenile) Ps have a fast metabolism so they need to be fed frecuently (daily)...

... and old post from Frank (hastatus):

"Folks, your piranas will not starve not being fed for a day or two, even a few weeks. They go through 3-4 months of dry season when food is scarce. That's why nature has provided the fat storage area in the dorsum. It would take several months before you would even begin to "see" signs of starvation.
Besides, keeping your pirana "lean and mean" is healthier than daily dosage of junk food."


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

Great post Mr. Hannibal tons of good information there!! Love the fact that you pulled out an old quote from Frank.


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## sprfunk (Dec 22, 2005)

This reminds me of a southpark episode when alot of "grownups" got locked in a room with nothing to eat. After about 4 hours they were talking about being a little hungry. Not wanting to starve they killed somone and ate him. Then they got out shortly after. LOL that was one funny episode.

The joke was that these people would eat somone even before reaching the point of starvation. Your P's will kill before that if one is week. So watch out for fin nips. I feed mine evry 3 days, skipped a day and there goes my pleco. lol DUH!


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## redrum781 (Apr 10, 2006)

my rhom went 23 days
now he eats what i give him


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## taylorhedrich (Mar 2, 2005)

_*Topic Moved to Feeding and Nutrition Forum*_


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## oldnavycb (Aug 27, 2003)

easily month but i have never seen a reason to starve my boys there good an healthy and i like it that way


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## Rough996 (Oct 3, 2006)

As with that South Park episode (good analogy), when you change the norm, you can expect some "anxiety" for that normalcy. If you have more than one P in your tank... and you're feeding them daily or regularly... cutting their food off "cold turkey" could cause a sort of anxiety that would lead to the cannibalism.

Everything in moderation people - drastic changes lead to drastic measures.


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## scottie81 (Feb 26, 2006)

I try not to feed my red bellies at regular intervals. Sometimes i leave it a few days, sometimes twice in 1 day. I also feed them different amounts and different foods all the time. this seems to have taught my P's to eat everything i put in there as they never know when the next meal is coming. It helped me as when i first got them they were very funny eaters until i did this.

It saves having to get all the dead food out with the old net anyway!!!!


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

RB 32 is a member with a P that has a lifetimes worth of fat reserves.









j/k


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