# Have you guys ever noticed this...



## ITsPennywise (May 26, 2005)

I'm not sure if this is just my Piranhas or not...But everytime I feed live fish to my piranhas...The next day my whole tank is filled with Piranha crap...and their hungry again...Its like the live fish is instantly digested and burned off...With nothing good for the Piranhas...hence the quick digestion and turn around.

But when I feed them fish fillets...Chicken...Beef...Whatever...It takes them days to digest it all...with only a little crap here and there...Like there is soo much more nutrition in feeding fillets and such.

I guess basically my point of this thread would be that it seems feeding live feeders has NO nutritional benefit to Piranhas compared to Fish Fillets, etc. Just seeing how the digestion process is different basically cements this fact.

Any experts care to comment on this and teach us all?

Thanks.









Oh btw...I forgot to mention...That this is why I have stopped feeding live foods altogether...Which is why you haven't seen any videos from me lately...it was fun while it lasted...But its over now.


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## steve1337 (Oct 25, 2005)

Another possibility is that live fish have things like bones and scales that are not so digestable. So those are crapped out quickly. Kind of like humans eating alot of fiber. It makes you crap alot and in our case anyway, it is good for you. Just a thought...


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## ITsPennywise (May 26, 2005)

steve1337 said:


> Another possibility is that live fish have things like bones and scales that are not so digestable. So those are crapped out quickly. Kind of like humans eating alot of fiber. It makes you crap alot and in our case anyway, it is good for you. Just a thought...


I like your angle...It makes sense...thanks buddy.









Anyone else have any other ideas?


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Yeah, personally, I disagree with a lot of the "Live feeders offer no nutritional value" crap.
In the amazon and it's tributaries.
In the Amazon, piranhas feed on such delicacies all the time, and hey... they've been around for thousands of years!


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## Ex0dus (Jun 29, 2005)

J2,
Happy to hear that as are all the rats and mice of the world







. Heres my take on the situation:

When you talk about live food, are you talking about the mammals or the fish? 
Piranhas dont have the digestive system to properly digest mammilian meat which would lead to longer time in the bowls as its harder to digest. Piranhas have high metobalisims so when they are fed fish they digest it quickly and sh*t almost as fast.



Piranha_man said:


> Yeah, personally, I disagree with a lot of the "Live feeders offer no nutritional value" crap.
> In the amazon and it's tributaries.
> In the Amazon, piranhas feed on such delicacies all the time, and hey... they've been around for thousands of years!


I agree/disagree somewhat here.

"live feeders offer no nuturtional value" ususlly they dont because usually they are goldfish which as you know are garbage. Seondly the nuturtional value can be replaced in store bought frozen prepared foods so when it boils down to it, you can pay 1.99 for a 1.5" tetra and let it sit in a qt tank for a few weeks or ya can buy 5lbs of smelt for 3.49


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## rbp guy (Apr 19, 2004)

My p's crap a lot regardless of live food or not. All I notice is that when on live food (minnows) the crap is gray. On shrimp, it turns a yellowish-orange.


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

Piranha_man said:


> Yeah, personally, I disagree with a lot of the "Live feeders offer no nutritional value" crap.
> In the amazon and it's tributaries.
> In the Amazon, piranhas feed on such delicacies all the time, and hey... they've been around for thousands of years!


No piranha in the history of the amazon has ever eaten a goldfish in the wild. The argument doesn't work.


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

rbp guy said:


> My p's crap a lot regardless of live food or not. All I notice is that when on live food (minnows) the crap is gray. On shrimp, it turns a yellowish-orange.


Same here









You ever tried color-enhancing pellets? It turns their crap deep red











> Yeah, personally, I disagree with a lot of the "Live feeders offer no nutritional value" crap.
> In the amazon and it's tributaries.
> In the Amazon, piranhas feed on such delicacies all the time, and hey... they've been around for thousands of years!


But we don't know nothing about how quick wild fish digest their food, and how quick they need to eat again, so that's not really a valid point. Maybe piranha's need to hunt a number of times a day when feeding primarily on fish, and just once a day when something else is their primary food source - we don't know, so we can't say anything about how that works in the wild, so we have nothing we can compare our observations on captive fish with, and most definitely we have nothing to draw any conclusions from...

To answer J2's question: my Reds seem to get hungry faster after I fed fish (smelt or fillet) indeed, and the same applies to pellet food. When they were fed shrimp, it seems to take a longer period of time before they get hungry and start begging for food again...


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## ITsPennywise (May 26, 2005)

Thanks for the opinions guys...

And Ex0dus...I knew you'd be happy to hear that my ways have changed.









I guess I have noticed that it does take them the longest to digest the mammal meat...then it does for a fish fillet...And yeah...It would make sense because their digestive system isn't really meant for mammal meat...Which is why it would keep them fuller longer.

And it would also explain why...They digest feeders almost instantly...and are hungry the next day with a tank full o crap.

I like that when I feed mammal meat...They only are hungry once a week...But I also like keeping them hungry...when I feed fish fillets.

I think I'm going start doing a strict frozen fish diet...where only feeding mammal meat once a month.

Thanks guys!

((( J2 )))


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

elTwitcho said:


> Yeah, personally, I disagree with a lot of the "Live feeders offer no nutritional value" crap.
> In the amazon and it's tributaries.
> In the Amazon, piranhas feed on such delicacies all the time, and hey... they've been around for thousands of years!


No piranha in the history of the amazon has ever eaten a goldfish in the wild. The argument doesn't wo
1.) I never said "Goldfish," I said "Live feeders."

2.) "No nutritional value" would mean just that: _"No nutritional value."_
If there were absolutely zero nutritional value in live feeders (Even goldfish) then those piranhas that are fed solely goldfish would not survive, and they do.

Therefore:
Live feeders (Including goldfish) have _some_ amount of nutritional value.









I liken feeding goldfish to your piranhas as for people eating Mc Donald's. 
If you've ever seen "Supersize Me," you'd see what I mean.
You CAN get by on such a lousy diet, but not very well... there IS nutritional value, but not very much, and there are one whole hell of a lot better things to eat!
(The occasional Big Mac isn't gonna kill ya though.)


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## ITsPennywise (May 26, 2005)

Piranha_man said:


> Yeah, personally, I disagree with a lot of the "Live feeders offer no nutritional value" crap.
> In the amazon and it's tributaries.
> In the Amazon, piranhas feed on such delicacies all the time, and hey... they've been around for thousands of years!


No piranha in the history of the amazon has ever eaten a goldfish in the wild. The argument doesn't work.
[/quote]

1.) I never said "Goldfish," I said "Live feeders."

2.) "No nutritional value" would mean just that: _"No nutritional value."_
If there were absolutely zero nutritional value in live feeders (Even goldfish) then those piranhas that are fed solely goldfish would not survive, and they do.

Therefore:
Live feeders (Including goldfish) have _some_ amount of nutritional value.








[/quote]

I liken feeding goldfish to your piranhas as for people eating Mc Donald's. 
If you've ever seen "Supersize Me," you'd see what I mean.
You CAN get by on such a lousy diet, but not very well... there IS nutritional value, but not very much, and there are one whole hell of a lot better things to eat!
(The occasional Big Mac isn't gonna kill ya though.)








[/quote]

I'm glad you brought this up...and I'll tell you why. I've always loved how some people bash others for feeding live feeders...ya know...not to get on elTwitcho...but saying that they have no nutrional value...blah blah...stay away...only feed them healthy foods...on an on.

These same people that bash everyone for feeding feeders...and harp all day about only feeding "healthy" foods to your piranhas...are the same people standing in line at McDonalds and Taco Bell everyday...Supersizing their meal...eating that extra bean burrito and what have you.

Maybe if they'd take the same concern on their piranha's diet...and direct it towards their own...These people wouldn't be so damn obese or unhealthy themselves.

Of course...this is just a generalization...But you see the irony here don't you.









((( J2 )))


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## Blacklotus (Aug 19, 2005)

Well said guys, i have been feeding my Ps feeders off and on for years,And i havent lost any of my fish. I think if you feed your fish a variety of different things it is far more beneficial to their health. And buy reading some of the posts on this site. I really dont think we are in a room full of marine biologists.


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## mauls (Mar 25, 2004)

> Oh btw...I forgot to mention...That this is why I have stopped feeding live foods altogether...Which is why you haven't seen any videos from me lately...it was fun while it lasted...But its over now.

































Anyhow, i've read that goldfish/rosie reds, carry somekind of chemical or something like that(thiamin?)in them that in the long run is not good for fish and will inhabit their growth, also they lack alot of vitamins that pellets, flakes etc carry.


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## Heartless-Dealer (Aug 3, 2003)

am i missing something... i rarely see my piranhas feces... maybe i just have good filtration

ac500, ac300, fluval 204, and fluval internal filter 4 plus

all on a 55 g !


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## ITsPennywise (May 26, 2005)

Heartless-Dealer said:


> am i missing something... i rarely see my piranhas feces... maybe i just have good filtration
> 
> ac500, ac300, fluval 204, and fluval internal filter 4 plus
> 
> all on a 55 g !


That's some crazy filtration you got going on there...That's my guess as to why you don't see it.


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## Whall Banner (Nov 25, 2004)

Piranha_man said:


> Yeah, personally, I disagree with a lot of the "Live feeders offer no nutritional value" crap.
> In the amazon and it's tributaries.
> In the Amazon, piranhas feed on such delicacies all the time, and hey... they've been around for thousands of years!


No piranha in the history of the amazon has ever eaten a goldfish in the wild. The argument doesn't wo
1.) I never said "Goldfish," I said "Live feeders."

2.) "No nutritional value" would mean just that: _"No nutritional value."_
If there were absolutely zero nutritional value in live feeders (Even goldfish) then those piranhas that are fed solely goldfish would not survive, and they do.

Therefore:
Live feeders (Including goldfish) have _some_ amount of nutritional value.









I liken feeding goldfish to your piranhas as for people eating Mc Donald's. 
If you've ever seen "Supersize Me," you'd see what I mean.
You CAN get by on such a lousy diet, but not very well... there IS nutritional value, but not very much, and there are one whole hell of a lot better things to eat!
(The occasional Big Mac isn't gonna kill ya though.):nod:
[/quote]
Totally agree.:nod:








Piranha Man


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

Heartless-Dealer said:


> am i missing something... i rarely see my piranhas feces... maybe i just have good filtration
> 
> ac500, ac300, fluval 204, and fluval internal filter 4 plus
> 
> all on a 55 g !


Rena XP3, Fluval 304, Emperor 400 on a 55 gallon.


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