# pellets = mess



## NeXuS (Aug 16, 2006)

i know pellets are good i try and feed mine hikari gold but it is just a big mess after they eat there is debris all over and it drives me nuts. will this change when they get older? they are not even 1 year yet.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

I got tired of the mess to so I switched to shrimp and other dead fish.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

That's weird...
What kind of mess... from uneaten pellets? Excessive poop?

My natts' diet consists of 80% Hikari pellets, and I find it to be the 'Cleanest' food there is.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Piranha_man said:


> That's weird...
> What kind of mess... from uneaten pellets? Excessive poop?
> 
> My natts' diet consists of 80% Hikari pellets, and I find it to be the 'Cleanest' food there is.


broken pellets would spread through the tank in less than 1/2 hour. My P's would nibble the pellets, and after that the whole tank would have remnants of pellets. Didnt work for me, so I switched. Maybe some people have better luck.


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## barbianj (Aug 3, 2003)

> That's weird...
> What kind of mess... from uneaten pellets?


I agree. There should not be a mess. If they are hungry when you feed them, they should hammer all of the pellets immediately. Just don't overfeed them. I don't dump a large amount in at one time. Sometimes they are not as hungry as I think.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

maknwar said:


> That's weird...
> What kind of mess... from uneaten pellets? Excessive poop?
> 
> My natts' diet consists of 80% Hikari pellets, and I find it to be the 'Cleanest' food there is.


broken pellets would spread through the tank in less than 1/2 hour. My P's would nibble the pellets, and after that the whole tank would have remnants of pellets. Didnt work for me, so I switched. Maybe some people have better luck.
[/quote]

Perhaps a smaller sized pellet.
How big are your fish?
My natts are 7", I'm using Hikari "Medium" pellets and they gulp them whole... no biting.
There are also Hikari "Small" pellets...


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Piranha_man said:


> That's weird...
> What kind of mess... from uneaten pellets? Excessive poop?
> 
> My natts' diet consists of 80% Hikari pellets, and I find it to be the 'Cleanest' food there is.


broken pellets would spread through the tank in less than 1/2 hour. My P's would nibble the pellets, and after that the whole tank would have remnants of pellets. Didnt work for me, so I switched. Maybe some people have better luck.
[/quote]

Perhaps a smaller sized pellet.
How big are your fish?
My natts are 7", I'm using Hikari "Medium" pellets and they gulp them whole... no biting.
There are also Hikari "Small" pellets...
[/quote]

I was also using the medium pellets, and my reds were about 4". Maybe the pellets were too big, I never tried any other size. They got awesome color from the pellets, but they didnt like them as much as shrimp and other non-living fish. When I was training them to eat the pellets, they wouldnt eat them, so I always had to retrieve the extras. That is when the mess happened. I would always miss a couple, causing the tank to stink and who knows what else happened due to it. Nexus, I know what you are saying, good luck if you continue to use them.


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

imbed as small ammount of pellets in fillets and or shrimp this will cut down on the mess factor but still provide superior nutrition from the pellets, this is what i do. the only down side it making them is a bit more labor intensive than other feeding methods.


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

As stated above, try using a smaller pellet. I tried to up the pellet size for my fish from mini to medium, and it created the same mess. Now, that I switched back to the smaller fish there are no isues. Granted, I have to feed twice as much since the pellets are so much smaller, but that is not a huge deal. You can also try breaking the fed amount down into two feedings. Perhaps twice a day at different times. The multiple feeding times, as well as smaller pellets should resolve that issue.


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## fearless_jones (Oct 23, 2005)

I had the same problem, I found that soaking them solve mess problem. It took about 3 days to find the right portion of pellets. I soaked for 20 minute ! My reds will eat about 4 large pellets twice a day no mess.


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## fishguy1313 (Feb 19, 2007)

I didn't want to say it, but just started on the pellets and my tank stinks bad. After a bit the large pellets I bought sink. I'm not one to fish everything out they don't eat very tediously like some of you do. My water clarity is even poor. Going to try the twice/day/small amount - mentioned above.


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## Hater (Apr 21, 2006)

I don't understand. You should be feeding floating pellets and the smaller they are the better.

You feed then a few pellets and whatever they don't eat in 5 minutes you remove. I would also recommend you get some mystery snails. They do a great job of scavenging any left over food by the Piranhas including pellets.

Hater


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Yeah, I toss them on a 'pinch' at a time, they come up, frenzy over them, and I toss in the next 'pinch.' 
There's never an uneaten pellet left in the tank.


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## fishguy1313 (Feb 19, 2007)

I'm not trying to accuse anyone, but when I started the pellet thread a couple of weeks ago, no one mentioned the small pellets. Maybe I'm wrong. I bought the large ones. Back to the drawing book for me.


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## Mattones (Jul 9, 2006)

I feed mine Mini pellets and their 5-7 inches. no problems just gotta put more in.


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## D.D.Denham (Aug 13, 2007)

Here's my suggestion...I get bite-size catfish, tilapia chunks - cut them and load some pellets into the middle of the piece...no mess and great nutrition! New Life Spectrum pellets I find are the best.


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## NeXuS (Aug 16, 2006)

its getting better now they can take them in 1 bite with no mess i just think a little at a time is what i need to do. but right now they don't eat anything really i think its b/c of this cloudy water problem idk


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## AJerman (Nov 7, 2007)

Hater said:


> I don't understand. You should be feeding floating pellets and the smaller they are the better.
> 
> You feed then a few pellets and whatever they don't eat in 5 minutes you remove. I would also recommend you get some mystery snails. They do a great job of scavenging any left over food by the Piranhas including pellets.
> 
> Hater


Is there an advantage to smaller pellets other than easier to eat, less mess, etc? The reason I ask is because I have a 2.5" or so red that will eat the "medium" pellets whole in one gulp. Obviously he doesn't need more than one or two if he's going to do that because they are going to expand and the last thing I want is an exploding fish, but I've actually wondered myself if there was any issue with them. He seems to have no problem with them, he's very healthy, digests it all normally, and looks great.


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## Hater (Apr 21, 2006)

AJerman said:


> I don't understand. You should be feeding floating pellets and the smaller they are the better.
> 
> You feed then a few pellets and whatever they don't eat in 5 minutes you remove. I would also recommend you get some mystery snails. They do a great job of scavenging any left over food by the Piranhas including pellets.
> 
> Hater


Is there an advantage to smaller pellets other than easier to eat, less mess, etc? The reason I ask is because I have a 2.5" or so red that will eat the "medium" pellets whole in one gulp. Obviously he doesn't need more than one or two if he's going to do that because they are going to expand and the last thing I want is an exploding fish, but I've actually wondered myself if there was any issue with them. He seems to have no problem with them, he's very healthy, digests it all normally, and looks great.
[/quote]

I don't beleive there is a problem with the pellets. Piranhas unlike Cichlids have teeth and are able to crush the pellets to any size that would allow them to digest them.

Hater


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## AJerman (Nov 7, 2007)

Hater said:


> I don't understand. You should be feeding floating pellets and the smaller they are the better.
> 
> You feed then a few pellets and whatever they don't eat in 5 minutes you remove. I would also recommend you get some mystery snails. They do a great job of scavenging any left over food by the Piranhas including pellets.
> 
> Hater


Is there an advantage to smaller pellets other than easier to eat, less mess, etc? The reason I ask is because I have a 2.5" or so red that will eat the "medium" pellets whole in one gulp. Obviously he doesn't need more than one or two if he's going to do that because they are going to expand and the last thing I want is an exploding fish, but I've actually wondered myself if there was any issue with them. He seems to have no problem with them, he's very healthy, digests it all normally, and looks great.
[/quote]

I don't beleive there is a problem with the pellets. Piranhas unlike Cichlids have teeth and are able to crush the pellets to any size that would allow them to digest them.

Hater
[/quote]
It's funny because he really doesn't even seems to bite them, he looks like he swallows them whole most of the time. They get soft pretty quick though, so I think it should still break down just fine after he eats them. I'll just be sure to not fee too much and keep an eye on him for any digestion problems. Thanks.


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## pirayaman (Nov 3, 2007)

heres an idea folks feed a very small handful wait till all are eaten then add another small handful like 10 pellets at a time ( im so confused i just dumped a hole bags of pellets in my tank and my ps didnt eat all of them and now there is pellets all over the bottom of my tank and its messing up my water) wow wow wow

feed less pellets at one time


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## LouDiB (May 22, 2006)

Whenever I had p's...pellets = LARGE AMOUNTS OF DUNG...they usually ate them all though...no problems with that...but i do find that it did make the tank smell a bit


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## Dawgz (Aug 18, 2005)

Hater said:


> I don't understand. You should be feeding floating pellets and the smaller they are the better.
> 
> You feed then a few pellets and whatever they don't eat in 5 minutes you remove. I would also recommend you get some mystery snails. They do a great job of scavenging any left over food by the Piranhas including pellets.
> 
> Hater


Is there an advantage to smaller pellets other than easier to eat, less mess, etc? The reason I ask is because I have a 2.5" or so red that will eat the "medium" pellets whole in one gulp. Obviously he doesn't need more than one or two if he's going to do that because they are going to expand and the last thing I want is an exploding fish, but I've actually wondered myself if there was any issue with them. He seems to have no problem with them, he's very healthy, digests it all normally, and looks great.
[/quote]

I don't beleive there is a problem with the pellets. Piranhas unlike Cichlids have teeth and are able to crush the pellets to any size that would allow them to digest them.

Hater
[/quote]

Cichlids have teeth too bro.


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