# What Could I Be Doing Wrong? My Black Piranha Is Not Eating



## yo momma piranha (Aug 13, 2013)

I recently bought a 7 inch black diamond piranha from a local fish store. I put it in a 75 gallon tank with a tank divider (essentially giving it about 30 gallons of room), and after the week long adjustment curve, it started eating and was active. I recently switched its tank (as I needed the 75 gallon tank) and moved it to a 30 gallon tank. Now here is the problem, it has been over 2 weeks since i put it in, and it has eaten NOTHING. I tried a variety of shrimp, smelt, talapia (and other frozen fish), beef, etc. It didn't touch them. I then tried live feeder fish, and they are still alive(i put them in 4 days ago). There is clearly something wrong, but I don't seem to know what. I put out a list of possibilities but i don't know which to choose. Any thoughts?


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

My guess would be stress from too small of tank, or poor water quality. It took my rhom a few weeks to get back into the routine of feeding after the last move.

What are your parameters? (Nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, temp etc)


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## scent troll (Apr 4, 2005)

speaking from experience...ive owned 3 rhombs. 2 of them took damn near a month to eat. fish generally will NOT starve themselves to death. if stress is that high they will likely have bigger problems. but from what you wrote it sounds like everything is going okay. i would assume its a normal acclimation process. rhombs are extremely stubborn touchy fish when it comes to new tanks.

just make sure of a few things. make sure the water quality is good. and the outside activity around the tank is minimal (to reduce stress) and that he has places to hide and relax...and keep feeding him making sure to remove uneaten food before it spoils the water quality. i promise you he will come around if those things are done. just gotta be more stubborn then the fish

also welcome to the site


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## Da' Manster! (Sep 1, 2009)

exactly...it's probably just stress from being moved around tank to tank and he's getting re-acclimated to the 30 gallon...and what are your parameters?...bad water quality also plays a role if a fish won't eat...but with rhoms it's normal for them to be picky or not eat for weeks at a time.


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## scent troll (Apr 4, 2005)

a good way to help him come along is add some feeders. although im not a huge fan of feeders active fish in the tank can help a shy or stressed fish come out and not to mention its a food source you can forget about. and if you do a feeder count im sure youll notice their numbers will decline (i.e. your rhomb is eating).


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## Marshall1391 (Jun 13, 2013)

im going with high amonia, happened with me when i first got my reds, smaller tank, easier to unbalence the params.


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## Da' Manster! (Sep 1, 2009)

any updates?


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## scent troll (Apr 4, 2005)

yeah update us soon as u can. curious to know if things are better


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