# Feeding My Juvenile Rb's?



## danny240 (May 19, 2014)

Hello! I am a proud new owner of 3 juvenile RB piranhas! They are about 2 inches big, still very small. They are in a 40 gallon tank, and they seem to get along quite well. They sometimes swim off on their own individually, but also stay together in their group of 3. They don't seem to be very aggressive towards each other, which is good. They are very skittish if walk near the tank, but I believe that is typical piranha behavior, especially as juveniles. They have things I have placed in the tank to hide, however.

I do plan to upgrade my tank once they are bigger, the 40 gallon should hold good for a bit.

The problem I am having with them is their diet. I tried frozen raw shrimp from the grocery store, which I thawed out and dangled on a plastic string type thing inside the tank. They went at it for a bit, but then they all swam away and become totally uninterested in it.

I have also tried frozen brine shrimp that come in the cubes. That was a total failure. They went at the cube for a bit, and it quickly dissolved into a big mess in the tank, and the piranhas just swam away again, uninterested.

The most success I have had is headless frozen silversides from the grocery store. I thaw it out, and take out the spine (its very sharp!), then string in on my plastic string, and almost as soon as I dangle it in the water. they all rush to it and start going crazy at it. They seem to like this the best.

I want my Piranhas to have a healthy diet, and a more varied diet than just silverside fish. I want them to grow up healthy!

Any tips/advice on this situation would be much appreciated!


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

It can sometimes take a few tries, especially when they are young... Rarely will they starve themselves to death (unless its a parasite or some other issue) so just keep up the rotation. As you learned, brine cubes suck unless its for lots of smaller fish.

I would also start trying a floating pellet of some sort (I use Hikari Cichlid gold) as they are super easy vs thawing frozen and preparing food, and are packed with all sorts of good things for your fish. Sometimes its nice to just drop em in and leave the house in the morning and not have to mess around.


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

I just feed what mine will eat, uaually thaw out frozen shrimp.


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