[acidsurvivor]

Yesterday it all started. I was going to my friends party which started around Saturday at 3:00 P.M so I left at 2:40 P.M. Before I left I fed my four red belly piranhas, which are housed in a 55 gallon tank. When I came back today, which is 3:50 one of my piranhas were on the bottem with all of his tail off and then some. It was still breathing though. This was the smallest one, about 2 1/2 inches. All the rest are about 3 inches+. The piranha that was killed had a scarred left eye from a fight so he was semi blind. Why do you think this happen?Water paremeters are fine. I use to feed them twice a day but went to one a day around 5:00. Should I go back to 2 a day until they hit maturity?Well I am down a piranha now.. I don't know what to do, im so pissed....

I guess I could get another rdp to replace it but I don't want the same thing to happen. Im so pissy because I raised it from a .5 inch.

I need some opinions please.

Thank you.

 

[pcrose]

I think he was murdered because he was partially blind and the pack didn't want a weak one in the bunch if you are worried about happening again you can raise a small one and put it in a tank by itself till he gets as big as the rest or buy a bigger one, sorry to hear about it. It's up to u

 

[sccavee]

For a 55 I would stay with the three you have now. For Reds that small you may want to feed twice a day. I stopped feeding twice a day when mine were close to 5". I also agree that the shoal knew the smaller one was weaker it may have been a matter of time before it happened.

 

[thePACK]

lower the temp on your tank to around 78 and feed twice a day...was having the same problem and this seemed to work for me...good luck and keep us posted

 

[readingbabelfish]

I have 5 3inch rbp in my 55g. I feed them every morning and that is all. I have also had mine since nickel size. I have the occasional fin nips, but usually only on the bigger of the 5. He/she is the bully and I think the rest get sick of it sometimes. But none are really weaker than any other or anything. I hope what happened to you doesn't happen to me. I have been feeding once a day for about a month or two. I do notice that two of them have much darker tails than the other three. I have my temp about 78 degrees. I also mix up their diet quite a bit. Hope everything turns out alright for you man!

 

[RhomZilla]

Im guessing that 3 of the biggest Ps all took their terriorial space. I cannot say that just because he had/or was one eyed to be the cause of this. I have a mutated 1 eyed thats 2nd to the smallest of 7-9" RBs who is the greediest and bossiest.

BTW: Even numbers are considered bad in the P world, especially in small tanks!!

 

[rosecityrhom]

I noticed from when I used to have 4 myself in my 80 gallon that the schoal was more territorial then they are now...3 of the larger ones claimed territories leaving the small one chased around from spot to spot. This was starting to bug me so I added another hiding place and it worked out fine. I now have 14 red bellies and the schoal is very tight with hardly any/if at all territorial disputes.