Fry piranhas

**Pablo** · 01-29-2013, 12:09 PM

Hi. I have a lot of fry piranhas, they're 4 days old now. I'm afraid to put them in the new tank that I have set up with my wife. When is the right time for me to move them? The tank where they are now has a lot of cotton like thing that's everywhere. Should I take them out? When can I do water change? Suppose to be it was the time for water change when I realized they're not behaving the usual. That's when my wife started searching what to do. Please help us cuz we know that not everyone is blessed with fry. Thank you guys in advance!

**madagascariensis** · 01-29-2013, 01:03 PM

The white cotton on the bottom is likely fungus caused by deteorating water quality. Change the water and remove as much as possible. If the new tank is cycled I don't see why you cannot move them, especially when conditions in the old tank seem to be going downhill fast. If they are too small for a net, use a siphon to suck them up.

**Crispy** · 01-29-2013, 02:03 PM

+1 to the above. the cottony substance has to go. at the very least do a water change and suck out as much of it as possible asap.

are the piranha fry eating? keep them well fed with frequent water changes for optimal growth.

**Indian Woods Angels** · 01-29-2013, 05:35 PM

Piranha fry are extremely fragile. Moving them may damage their spines. I have had spawns of several thousand, perhaps as many a 3,000. For the first hours after hatch you will get a lot of egg mucous. You need to put in several well seeded sponge filters to convert this debris into nitrate. The fry are very susceptible to water quality and gill burning. I would only do a 20% tap water change using dechlors every 6 hours or so. If you can preage some that will really help. If you can use water from an existing tank this will allow perhaps 50% water changes each 8 to 10 hours without too much die off from shock. As soon as the egg yolk is absorbed they will take baby brine shrimp. It is very critical that you space them well. They are genetically designed by nature to grow at various rates. This allows for the larger fish to actually survive from the smaller fish in times of crowding and stress. This can have a affect on your numbers. Once they are the size of a pea I switched mine to frozen beef heart. At nickel size I put them on boiled chicken. Just buy some breasts and boil them. Do not introduce skin or fats into the tank, it must be lean. Using other types of meats adds a lot of fat. Turkey may be used but the price is rather high. I was able to get 1200 or so to nickel size in around two months. That is a lot of work.