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I have 4 baby red belly piranhas, I have been feeding them one cube of krill a day.

now that there bigger ( a looney size ) should i feed them more?

Depends how small they are, but a fish's feeding preferences can be set very early on, so i,d be tempted to offer a variety of foods asap, it makes them less fussy feeders when they get older.

It would be good if you could set up a tank for raising feeder guppies. Larger piranhas require meatier food than krill, and feeder guppies are a good choice as they tend to have more nutrition than Cyprinids. By raising them yourself and feeding them high-quality foods, you ensure that your piranhas are getting all the nutrition they need.

It is also good if you train them to take chunks of meat such as beef heart, large frozen shrimp, and white fish fillets. As LongHairedGit said, it is good to get them used to a large variety of foods.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Indeed, a non specialist carnivorous fish like a piranha raised entirely on krill will suffer nutritional deficiences, there has to be variety, a balance of protien, vitamins , minerals and fats (especially with piranha, not too much fat). You may have got away with limited variety thus far (and even that is unknown for sure)but you really need change the way things are done, or the fish's health and growth will suffer.

Its actually possible that a fish fed excess protien and not enough vitamins and balanced foods may suffer tearing tissue, organ failure, brain damage, renal distress, blindness, low immune systems, bone deformity or a kind of osteoporosis , poor scale integrity, and either lack of growth or hyper accelerated growth. Thats just what comes of the top of my head, so variety asap and have healthy fish with big toothy grins .

A fish's neonatal stage can be the time when nutrition is most important,its a time when high metabolisms reign and many essential structures grow that the fish will need for the rest of its life, so make sure you redress this immediately, as you still have a chance to undo any damage that may have been done.



Last edited by longhairedgit at 02-Dec-2005 01:20

a good feeding schedule would be:
while the fish are young(0-3in.)feed daily with bloodworm, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, krill, etc.
once between 3-4in. u can cut back feedings to 3 times a week this is a good time to start moving them to larger whole foods such as whole shrimp, earthworms, white-meat fishes, etc.
by the time they are 6in. or more u really only have to feed them twice a week. of course u want to make sure to feed them well and if u dont like that schedule u can feed them daily(heck, im just tryin to make it easier for u).
NOW, here are some foods NOT to feed ur piranha.
NO pink or red meat fishes, such as salmon, shark, i also include catfish in this category. these types of fish are higher in fat and oil than white-meat fishes.
NO beef, poultry, or pork meat. these are even worse than pink or red meat fishes. much higher in fat and oil content. and since most of these animals are pumped full of hormones that cant be good for piranha(now imagine what it does to u).
AND last but not least feeders, some people feed their piranha almost exclusively on feeders, while some dont use them at all. its really up to u. but note that feeder fish carry the possibility of bringing disease into ur tank. unlikely tho, piranha are well adapted to feeding on weak and diseased fish. but better safe than sorry. the real problem with feeders is they arent as nutritious as one might think. theyre usually to small for a real meal. ur piranha end up eating more fins n scales than real meat. so my suggestion would be to keep feeders to a minimum. use a well-rounded diet, offer 1-2 LARGE feeders(by this i mean something say 2-3in larger than the largest piranha in ur shoal) once every two weeks to a month.
good luck to u, i hope piranha bring as much enjoyment to u as they did for me.