# Piranhas wont eat the mice!



## bigtankman (May 13, 2009)

Hi, I am new to the piranha world. I was recently talked into buying a huge fish tank and 11 different piranhas. I didnt even know different ones existed. Its pretty cool how they look different and what not. Some seem to be freaking out though. I'd post pics of the beasts if I had a camera. Now I know you feed them mice, but they wont eat all of them. They have eaten three, and now they wont eat them anymore. It made a huge mess of fur in the water. It was really kinda cool. I was wondering if you guys could tell me how to get these guys eating. Thanks Bigtankman


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## Smoogle (Jan 8, 2009)

Oh jeez, you have no idea what kind of replies you're about to get.


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## bigtankman (May 13, 2009)

I hope so, I am starting to worry that they will die from not eating.


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## Mattones (Jul 9, 2006)

First...Do not feed mice. EVERRRRRR... READ the forums. and I'm sorry for whats about to happen.


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## bigtankman (May 13, 2009)

Thats what I was told to feed them, and thats what they eat on youtube. What's going to happen, everyone does this.


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## Guest (May 14, 2009)

Okay, please go to the nutrition section. No, not everyone feeds their Piranhas Mice. Actually barely any of us do. You should feed your piranhas a varied diet of quality pellets, white fish such as tilapia, sole, mussles, raw or cooked shrimp, krill and even earth worms. Do not feed your piranhas goldfish they are full of parasites and can stunt the growth of your fish. Also, do not feed them any meat that comes from a mammal. It is super fatty, ruins the water quality and its not good for them.

I would love to see a picture of your fish and tank. What kind of piranhas do you have? Also, dont worry if your piranhas dont eat, they can go for months without food.


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## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

HOLY sh*t!!! first off, WELCOME TO P-FURY, you will find a LOT of great info on this site. i suggest you read as much as you can as fast as you can and learn what you should really be feeding your piranhas. also depending on what different kind you got and what size tank you have etc. can all be a BIG no a HUGE ISSUE. how's the water quality did you cycle the tank or did you just add water and add a bunch of piranhas? if your gonna feed them live food feed them healthy goldfish or guppies, other than that i'd suggest Crickets, frozen foods such as mealworms, brine shrimp, daphnia, beef heart, shrimp ofcourse thaw it out with tank water first then feed. if they are juveniles feed them 2-4 times a day if they are adults feed them once every other day. please READ this forum the information thread is great starters and get those mice out of there ASAP!


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## leg89 (Dec 10, 2008)

Smoogle said:


> Oh jeez, you have no idea what kind of replies you're about to get.


hahahahaaha love the call....

man oh man... where to start...

i'm kind of feeling bad for you and i have a few minutes to waste so...i'll try to be very kind with you dude.

you are about to be told by so many members here (me first) that the first thing you should do is read and get good info on whatever living thing you want to purchase in order to maintain it in good conditions. if a budy told you, it's not what i call being responsible. as for youtube, there are a lot of things not to immitate that are there, and feeding mice to your ps is one of them.

now, yes there are A LOT of piranha speecies and NOT all of them can live together. hope you did not mix some speecies that will kill each others! surf the forum to try to identify what you have there. there is a section on the forum that gives an overview of each speecies, or you can go on websites such as opefe.com to try to identificate what yours. i'd bet on red bellies (pygocentrus natterreri)

there is also tank size. be careful when you say you have a large tank. 10+ piranhas should be kept in a thank something like 8 feet long, and members here have that, and even larger. a general rule of thumb is to calculate 20 gallons of water per fish. most piranhas in pet shops are rater skittish fish and most people here will suggest a planted thank with many hidding spots. that affects their behaviors

as for diet, go with fish, fish, fish, and...lets say fish. that means you can go with fish filet, shrimps, clams, etc.

if you are really blood thirsty (or if you want to respect their hunting nature) go with live fish.

most piranhas don't digest well red meat so mice is not a good choice

man...hope you'll read a lot on the topic and try to adapt your fishes' environment.

GOOD LUCK!


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## gtc (Nov 5, 2008)

bigtankMAN said:


> Hi, I am new to the piranha world. I was recently talked into buying a huge fish tank and 11 different piranhas. I didnt even know different ones existed. Its pretty cool how they look different and what not. Some seem to be freaking out though. I'd post pics of the beasts if I had a camera.
> 
> Now I know you feed them mice, but they wont eat all of them. They have eaten three, and now they wont eat them anymore. It made a huge mess of fur in the water. It was really kinda cool. I was wondering if you guys could tell me how to get these guys eating. Thanks Bigtankman


I'm a lil confuse on the part that says 11 different piranhas, i'm hoping that you mean 11 piranhas cause if you do have 11 different piranhas in your tank then you will need more than one tank dude, and whoever told you to feed your piranhas mice clearly does'nt care for the well being of the piranhas and like them for just entertainment which for most of us in this forum is more than that.


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## EZmoney (May 13, 2004)

Smoogle said:


> Oh jeez, you have no idea what kind of replies you're about to get.










hahaha that was the first thing that I thought when reading the post.

Welcome to the site. Other than that, my best suggestion is to stop learning about piranhas from youtube videos. Are you at least familiar with keeping aquariums? I would begin reading everything on this site because you need a crash course in piranha keeping.

GL and give us more details about your tank.


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## blbig50 (Jan 1, 2009)

you mean you guys dont do that?


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

oh dear.

i think the problem here is you just got given a tank with a bunch of p's in it and all the informtation you have on them is from youtube.

do you have any experience with keeping aquariums?
what equipment came with the tank? filters? and such
how big is the tank?

and stop feeding mice. veyr very few people do that who want to keep helathy piranaha's and not just for show

read around this website. theres loads of good information on keeping p's
and feel free to ask any questions. but to help you sort it out we need to know how big your tank is. and what kind of p's you have and how big they are.

be a great help if you could get some pics aswell

oh and Welcome to P-Fury


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

First off come on guys a little patience and thought for the growth of the site. As I am sure you understand by now there are alot of animal lovers in this site that would be more than happy to flame you till ya puke. But thanks to Mattones, ksls, and Noodles(suggest adding them to your friends list) they beat everyone to the punch and used disscression as well are as kind natured members as you are going to find on here. This is a really TOUCHY issue in this site and although there are some here that feed mice and rats MOST do not for their main concern is the health and welfare of their fish. You should have read in nutrition section a little better because this becomes a issue at least once a month maybe two. I'm sure if investigted a little further you would have found and will find what to feed them and why feeders such as mammals are a big no no if reputation and a non flamed out thread is wgat you want. I will just say Welcome to P-Fury the utmost authority on keeping P's and will find all you need in this site or within the walls of countless of members minds that are more than willing to help. Hope to see ya around and take care.


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## Blue Flame (Jan 16, 2006)

Welcome to P-fury!

I highly recommend that you READ, read, and read, as much as you can, about what you need to PROPERLY take care of your piranhas. All the info is on this site for sure.Thinking you can just feed them mice, is like buying a goldfish and feeding it cheerios. They will get sick and die in no time. I too, am curious on what types of piranhas you have in your tank? Hopefully, the pet store sold you fish that can housed together, and won't kill each other over time. Pygos alone, do enough damage to each other, without throwing one of the other varieties in the mix.

good luck, 
Blue


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## Dawgz (Aug 18, 2005)

this thread has to be "fake"

no one is THAT retarded....atleast i hope not.


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## Plum (May 4, 2006)

Dawgz said:


> this thread has to be "fake"
> 
> no one is THAT retarded....atleast i hope not.


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## sapir (Jun 20, 2008)

Dawgz said:


> this thread has to be "fake"
> 
> no one is THAT retarded....atleast i hope not.


I was thinking the same....


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

11 different piranhas in a huge tank~!? I hope you didn't mix multiple serra. in one tank... and feeding them mice is just wrong.
not everything you see on youtube is correct. if you see ppl jump off building on youtube are you going to do the same????


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

i think people are going about this the wrong way. no point abusing him. hes just gonna stick a finger up at you and the p's wil keep on suffering

theres so many people out there who get pets because they look cool but have no idea how to care fo them. atleast this guy has bothered to search for some help on the internet. all we can do is guide him as best as possible and hope he does the right thing and turns the tank into a wicked healthy aquarium with some badass p's in it


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

RedneckR0nin said:


> First off come on guys a little patience and thought for the growth of the site. As I am sure you understand by now there are alot of animal lovers in this site that would be more than happy to flame you till ya puke. But thanks to Mattones, ksls, and Noodles(suggest adding them to your friends list) they beat everyone to the punch and used disscression as well are as kind natured members as you are going to find on here. This is a really TOUCHY issue in this site and although there are some here that feed mice and rats MOST do not for their main concern is the health and welfare of their fish. You should have read in nutrition section a little better because this becomes a issue at least once a month maybe two. I'm sure if investigted a little further you would have found and will find what to feed them and why feeders such as mammals are a big no no if reputation and a non flamed out thread is wgat you want. I will just say Welcome to P-Fury the utmost authority on keeping P's and will find all you need in this site or within the walls of countless of members minds that are more than willing to help. Hope to see ya around and take care.


QFT-

Great post RnR


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## bigtankman (May 13, 2009)

Thank you all for your replies. I do appreciate it. This information is all going to be put into action. Thank you all again. Mice are out, and in with nutrition.


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## db04ph (Jan 27, 2009)

so what P's do you own?


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## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

bigtankMAN said:


> Thank you all for your replies. I do appreciate it. This information is all going to be put into action. Thank you all again. Mice are out, and in with nutrition.


awesome, also i speak for myself on this one as i dont know how other members are about recieving private messages etc. but you can PM me if you ever have any questions about anything i will help you as best as i humanly can. also like RedneckRonin said, there are plenty of people that have a wealth of knowledge on this site and are always willing to help just add them to your friends list i doubt they'd mind. i mean that's what the friends list is for and if they do mind they probably will just ignore you haha so take advantage of that if you must. if all else fails start a thread we usually have quick replies to them!

again,


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## the_w8 (Jul 28, 2003)

if you could somehow take a pic of ur P's with a camera we could help you figure out what type of P's you have....Hopefully they are all RB's


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

bigtankMAN said:


> Hi, I am new to the piranha world. I was recently talked *First you shouldn't buy on impluse or have to be talked into getting a tank.*into buying a huge fish tank and 11 different piranhas* Im assuming you mean individuals, becasue i doubt you could even get 11 species*. I didnt even know different ones existed. Its pretty cool how they look different and what not.* Not sure what you mean becasue you should have 3 species max- two main genus pygocentrus and serrasalmus. Keep serras alone and pygo can be grouped. There are 3 species of pygos (4 if you count ternetzi) so that is why i say you should only have 3 species max.* Some seem to be freaking out though* Hollywood and reality are two different things. In hollywood, p's are killing machines, but in reality, they are often skiddish, they will eat feeder, but they are generally skiddish to anythign bigger then them.*. I'd post pics of the beasts if I had a camera.
> 
> Now I know you feed them mice, but they wont eat all of them. They have eaten three, and now they wont eat them anymore.*First off dont feed them mice. they can injure the p's and arnt that good for them. Skip feeders all together. feeder fish often contain parisites that can pass on to the p's. Feed them thawed raw fillets like from a supermarket and special pellets if you can get them to eat it.* It made a huge mess of fur in the water.*Not a surprise* It was really kinda cool. I was wondering if you guys could tell me how to get these guys eating. Thanks Bigtankman* You cant eat limitlessly and either can they. If they just ate three mice, they are fine. Feed them a fillet in a couple days. Adults can go a month with no food no problem so dont worry about that. I would feed them 1-2 times a week with a fillet or two each feeding for them to share. With 11, i would drop in two halves. Shrimp is also good to use. Just make sure there raw.*


Not sure if this is the case or not, but you post sounds fake and like your just trying to piss people off. Not having a camera also adds to this effect as well as having nearly no posts. Dont know if my thoughts are true, but dont be suprised if you get flamed. Last and not least, WELCOME...


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## primetime3wise (Sep 28, 2003)

i'd be really concerned about the water quality at his point. you noted that they ate 3 of them and it made a huge mess. i would really start digging around there, water quality. also, at the very least, if you did not properly cycle the tank before you put the p's in, i would get something to help kick start the cycle. your local fish store (lfs) will have something for this.


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## chomp chomp (Oct 28, 2003)

Welcome to the site. I am glad to see most members have responded positivley and as well as yourself in your rebuttle.

There are some very knowledgable people on the site and most of which would be happy to educate you on how to properly care for these fish. If you are always welcome to private message myself or anyone of us if you are afraid to ask a general question on the fourms.

There are some saved threads that would be very benifical to you and can really accelerate your learning curve. As you learn more about them, educate your friends so one day these fish can overcome an unjust reputation and will be available to us hobbiest for years to come.


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## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

stop stealin' my lines haha


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