# Elongatus



## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

Hey guys,

Just ordered my Elongatus, which should be here in a few days. Decided to go with this guy instead of a blue diamond rhom.

What are your thoughts on these? Any advice/tips would be much appreciated (ie, what to expect first few days, what they like to eat most, how they differ from most other P's, etc..)

I've already done months of research, but this is my first P so I can use all the help that's out there!


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

What size elong did ya get? That PH finally balance out some?

My suggestions would be a proper acclimation (piece of airline and drip method works great), and minimal decor in the tank (every serra I have owned will just hide if its an option)

Expect a skittish, shy fish that refuses food... might take weeks or months to become aggressive

Other than that, a nice strong powerhead might help some in the future... elongs are typically active swimmers


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

The one I ordered is 6 inches. My pH did come down, sort of. It is still hovering right around 7.8-8.0. Much higher than recommended, but I keep seeing that a stable pH is much more important. I will try my best to acclimate him when he arrives.

So, an Elongatus will be much more skittish than if I were to have gotten the blue diamond?

I have 2 places in the tank I think he will be able to hide in. Right now I am most concerned with keeping him as comfortable as possible since the pH will probably stress him out a bit.

How long is too long to go for them to not eat?

Thanks!


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Most Ps will be skittish the first few weeks... all comes down to the individual fish.

You should be good to go, I have had it go 3 weeks or a month without eating.


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

Wow a whole month! Do yours prefer live food?


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

They wont typically starve themselves, unless its an insane amount of stress, disease, or parasite. Being confident in that is a big part of introducing new foods, as they will also try to wait for favorites.

I only feed live if I have given the feeders 30days of quarantine (or more), so I can treat and observe them for parasites or ICH. It only takes one big $$ loss for you to start weighing the risk / reward. For a long time, I had 2 breeding pairs of cichlids in the sump tank... Some fry would ride the return pump into the display, and eventually grow to around 1" before the rhom would pick them off. Worked great to keep the tank active, but really turned into a bunch of work to siphon and raise the ones from the bottom.

I have a 10 gal setup on hand that I can fill with tank water, grab a filter pad from the overflow box and be ready to go... something to note is you NEVER want to put filter media, nets, decor or anything back in the display as that can also contaminate things.


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

Thanks for the advice. I guess my next step will be setting up a tank for live food for the elong. I am sure a small tank should be fine, since this tank can be pretty crowded?

What type of live food did you feed him?


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Yeah, like I said I just use a 10 gallon with a large HOB filter... have had 100 or more smaller fish in there

I tried to stay away from goldfish, and used convict ciclids because they breed like rabbits and the fry are fairly easy to raise. Literally every water change would trigger a new breeding cycle... and at one time I had 5 or 6 tanks dedicated to batches of fry.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Congrats on getting an elong!

I've had quite a few different species, and my elong was by FAR the most aggressive and entertaining.
When mine arrived at the house, I popped him in his tank, and within 10 minutes decided to move the tank to another portion of the room.
I tossed in a feeder and my buddy and I each got on an end of the tank/stand and picked it up to move it.
Water sloshing and everything, the elong hit that feeder HARD.

Time to settle?
Not THIS guy...!

I look forward to getting another in the near future.

Lookin' forward to pics/video!


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

Ægir said:


> Congrats on getting an elong!
> 
> I've had quite a few different species, and my elong was by FAR the most aggressive and entertaining.
> When mine arrived at the house, I popped him in his tank, and within 10 minutes decided to move the tank to another portion of the room.
> ...


That sounds awesome man! It's my first piranha, so I am very excited.

I am still slightly nervous to pay all this money for a fish and shipping, when my pH is around 8.0, but everyone I've talked to said it won't kill the fish or stress him out for too long.

I decided to get a black mask elong, they look awesome!

In the spring time I am thinking about picking up a black rhom or possibly a piraya.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

I doubt you'll be disappointed.
If you are getting your elong from a reputable supplier (I get nearly all my fish from Aquascape), you'll be fine.
I wouldn't worry too much about the 8... stability is more important than level.
Have you tried adding peat to your filters?
I do this and it keeps my pH down around 6 (7.8 out of the tap).

As for your future choice, some will argue saying that they've had awesome solo Pygos, but I feel they do so much better in a group. 
If I were to do a single fish, it would always be a Serra.

Not much is more impressive than a nice set-up with a group of piraya IMO... and a single huge rhom is hard to beat.

Lookin' forward to those pics!


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

No , haven't tried adding peat yet. Will that drop the pH slowly?

The elong is coming from Aqua scape... First time ordering on there. I hear many good things though.


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

Hey guys, just got the black mask elong a few hours ago. So far so good. The water pH he came with was about a 7.0, so I was worried how stressed he'd be transitioning to my tanks 8.0. I just did the whole drip thing for about 30 mins (thanks for that sticky).

He was pretty skittish the fist 10 mins, but since then he's been fine. 2 mins after putting him in, I walked to the short side of the tank to get a better look of him and he went nuts. VERY fast, darted into the sand, started stirring some sand up, and then darted into the glass so hard, I actually heard a loud thump.

I decided to move around the tank a lot slower, until he gets used to it. He only really likes one half of my tank, the side with the heater, away from the drift wood and plants. Only time he goes over there is if I'm too closed to him.

After a couple of hours in the tank, he seemed comfortable enough, so I gave him a 1x1 piece of talapia. Within about 10 sec, he took a chunk out of it, and that was it for about 5 mins. After some time, he picked at it quite a bit, but I don't think he was biting as hard as he could, because he was no longer actually tearing it off into piece. I took it out a few mins later, will try again for dinner, unless you guys think I should wait a day or two.

Overall he seems to be doing great. Other than his bottom jaw slamming into the glass, everything is good. Thanks for all of the advice!


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Nice looking elong!

I would hold off on the food for a day or two... sometimes stressed fish will regurgitate food, which will sit in the tank and mess up the water. Also you netting uneaten food will just keep startling it.

Might be a good time to start "training" it to accept pellets. I find its much easier to drop a few in on my way out the door, vs thawing and preparing frozen foods and watching them eat. I use the large size Hikari Gold pellets, and that is about 90% of my fishes diet.


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

Sounds good. I laughed out loud when I read your sentence telling me to hold off on feeding. Not because I think you're crazy, but because I am sure everyone gets told to hold off feeding (LIKE ME) but most can't wait to do so.

I was planning on waiting, but seeing that he was very active, I thought I might go for it.

I plan on holding off now til at least tomorrow night, there will be plenty more thrashing to see...



Sahvage said:


> Sounds good. I laughed out loud when I read your sentence telling me to hold off on feeding. Not because I think you're crazy, but because I am sure everyone gets told to hold off feeding (LIKE ME) but most can't wait to do so.
> 
> I was planning on waiting, but seeing that he was very active, I thought I might go for it.
> 
> I plan on holding off now til at least tomorrow night, there will be plenty more thrashing to see...


Oh yea, and the reason my water is the color it is, partially from my driftwood (even after boiling and soaking for a week) but mostly because of the black water extract I was recommended.

What do you guys think about it? I was told P's like it. I didn't pull the full amount directions say though, about half that.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Yeah, I remember when I first got a small rhom... friends were showing up with feeder fish the same size expecting it to eat them









I would also bet you woke up overly early, spent lots of time watching the front door, and thinking you heard the delivery guy pull up 1000 times only to be disappointed.

Black water extract is up to you... you will have to keep adding it with water changes. I am partial to an extremely clean tank, so never really worked for me.


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

Unfortunately, I was at the shooting range training this morning. I told my wife to text me the second it got home, and sure enough she did. Luckily she set the box somewhere for me (where my kids couldn't jump on it) and it was just waiting for me when I walked in the door.

Funny what all the movies do to P's reputation. I told my mom who lives back in NY that I got a piranha today, she immediately gasped and said OMG you have kids!! I just laughed.

Piranha keeping is addicting. I just got my first one, and I am looking into my next one. Next April ill be in NY visitng family, and I'm thinking of making a trip to Jersey to checkout Aquascape in person. I really wana do a large schooling tank next, like the caribe's.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

I'm with Aegir, screw black water extract... it's bullshit.

As for peat, it will drop your pH at "just the right speed."
I'd either get peat pellets and put them into a nylon bag or use a section of nylon pantyhose (this is what I do), or get unprocessed peat like that which is used in gardening... it can be put directly into your filtration system sandwiched between pads or floss. Just make sure there are no chemicals such as fertilizers or whatnot in it. I've always been fine with that which I've gotten from the garden department in hardware stores and such.
Put a copious amount in there, it will hold your pH surprisingly well... even though water changes you shouldn't notice much (if any) fluctuation.

With a single Serra in a tank, your bioload will be much less than with a group of pygos... so water changes can be done 20% per week or so (compared to the 50% per week I do with my pygo tanks).

You've got a great looking fish, thanks for the pics!
Hope to see a feeding video once he really starts to take off!

I have the feeling you're going to be very pleased with this fish.


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

Piranha_man said:


> I'm with Aegir, screw black water extract... it's bullshit.
> 
> As for peat, it will drop your pH at "just the right speed."
> I'd either get peat pellets and put them into a nylon bag or use a section of nylon pantyhose (this is what I do).
> ...


Thanks for the advice, bro. I am planning on adding the peat to my eheim this weekend. Well, my weekend actually starts next Sunday, workweek starts tomorrow =(...so I'll follow up after this. You may even hear from me before hand with some questions.

Again, thanks!


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

^^ Just realized I didn't complete the thought on peat... so just added to it.


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## addicted216 (Sep 30, 2011)

man, he is looking good, great pick up, he will settle in for you very nicely, just remember when using peat and w/c your ph will flux, and you want it steady, my ph has been at 7.9 for years without ANY problems so adding something that makes it flux back and forth doesn't make since, keeping it steady is more important, but also remember, the driftwood that's leaking tannins also raises the ph level. have you done any testing of your tap water?


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

Yea, my tap comes out at about 7.5..

I thought the drift wood tannins actually lowered pH? My mistake. I'm still at 8.0 pH. He seems fine though and is not very skittish. He still only stays on one side of the tank, but hopefully that will change with time.

Anyways, my water temperature this morning was all the way down to 75. That too cold for him?


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

75 is fine, I keep my tanks at 72 to lower aggression.

When you say "down to", why is the tank temp lowering? Not enough heater wattage or what?


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## Sahvage (Dec 18, 2013)

I guess so. I only have one in there, but it's rated for a bigger tank than my 75. I guess I should go get another smaller one. My heater never turns off.

During the day it's just shy of 80, but in the early morning it's pretty low.

2 heaters is better than 1 anyways.

Tried feeding again this evening. Catfish this time. First time he's had food since yesterday morning, but he still only ate a very small piece. Then one other piece he kept regurgitating and then swallowing again. He must have done this 10 times until he left it alone for a few min, then I took it out.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Sahvage said:


> Yea, my tap comes out at about 7.5..
> 
> I thought the drift wood tannins actually lowered pH? My mistake. I'm still at 8.0 pH. He seems fine though and is not very skittish. He still only stays on one side of the tank, but hopefully that will change with time.
> 
> Anyways, my water temperature this morning was all the way down to 75. That too cold for him?


You're not mistaken, tannins do lower the pH.
Also, I cannot speak for Sahvage's experience with peat pH alteration in regards to fluctuation, but in all the years I've kept aquarium fish (a little over 40 years now) I've never had an issue with pH fluctuations occurring due to peat in the filters. It's always been the steadiest, most reliable way to lower pH.
Several years ago I was obsessed with the pH in my tanks. I tried synthetic acid drops, tannin drops, driftwood, leaves, peat, etc... the peat won hands down.

I swear by it.


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