[Nes]

Now I'm PROBABLY NOT going to be sticking my hands in a tank full of adult red-bellies, but any tips on decensitizing them to fingers now when they've only got little teeth in case of an emergency? (Happens sometimes when you need to just jump in and grab an electric device or marker...

)

Or just forget the whole thing?

They are doing quite well

Still hiding from me but dash out quickly to grab the white fish-meat, bits of krill & bloodworms they are getting now

.

Any suggestions on foods that are REALLY good for colouration & especially growth as a few of my Ps are smaller then the others (one is quite small by comparison) - of course I'm making sure the runts are getting alot of food too

Nes.

 

[dptrackstardp]

hey welcome to p-fury you can feed your reds ghost shrimp they help.

 

[compton ass steve]

shrimp promote good color as well

 

[HighOctane]

I am not sure about the decensitizing them to fingers part... but as for growth and coloration use shirmp and krill for nice color and beefheart for growth. Try to mix up the diet a bit and give them a ew different things to see what they like. Catfish, scallops, shirmp,beefheart...these are all great staple diets and will ensure big healthy piranha. I would try to get them on somekind of small pellets while young. This way they are more likely to accept them when older. This will greatly help with their nutrition.

This is just my opinion but I would try to keep some small dither fish in the tank with the reds. Maybe 10 or 15 feeder guppies in the tank at all times. These can usually be bought for 5 cents each so. I say this because reds tend to be very cannabalistic while small and a eaten guppy is much better then an eaten red belly.

I have used this method myself with pygos and have yet to lose a piranha *knock on wood*.

 

[rbp 4 135]

they shouldnt bite you, and i say SHOULDNT, mine are between 5-8 in, and only one ever thinks about taking a pop at me, unfortunately hesthe 8 incher.

as for food, a varried diet is important, mix it up wit a satple of catfish, shrimp, however the best is fwhole frozenl fish such as smelt. Also the shrimps shell can be color promoting, it is best to feed shrimp with the shell on if the p's are big enough to take a bite out of it

 

[RhomZilla]

With my past Pirayas, the best coloration came out after feeding smelt and seed... yes, seeds. Some pellets would help with coloration, but raw varieties would do best.

Moved to Feeding and Nutrition

 

[HighOctane]

RhomZilla...what kind of seeds?

 

[Nes]

I'm curious about seed type as well, wonder if they'd take a few pomegranit seeds? well maybe in a few months they are still too small

I've been trying to find beefheart (my oscars love it as well) but for some reason there are not butcher shops in my area & the local grocery stores don't carry it :\ I hate going with the pet-store stuff because it's silly expensive!

I can't feed them catfish cause I have a bull-head but I've been feeding them human-consumed fishes from the grocery store (can't remember the names - got just some great tails last time).

Dither fish would be a good idea - I hadn't considered it because the tank is so small (10 gallon right now) but I'll try to cull out some of my guppies .

I can't find ghost shrimp any where around me either :x and when you do it's much too expensive. The only option is to grow it yourself- but I've run out of tanks! (need to get some more small ones)

What sort of pellet brand is good? I did try tossing in some tropical bits & chichlid baby food but I can't rember if they went for it (try it again this morning

). I really don't mind raising them up on live & frozen foods if that's whats best for them.

To cut costs my fish get mostly non-fish food as it is

Nes.