Tuesday, December 21, 2010

THEY ARE HERE... THEY ARE HERE!!!!

Thursday marked the big day! Since my computer has been in the shop, it was hard to upload a blog with all the excitement and pictures. These seven piranha have been on the prowl!

Here is my lovely tank. The ones in the tank at the moment are the gold fish (prospective food) and the bag is full of the "Lucky 7". After I released the hounds, they didn't know what to do with all the space! They were used to either the over crowded bag that they were sent to the pet store in from the Amazon, or the over crowded fish tank that they resided in the pet shop.

When I got them home, I gave them some Shrimp Brine, and they devoured that. I had to leave for work that night so I left the little guys at home to find for themselves through the night.

After a 12 hour shift I came home to find all the gold fish to have tail wounds and the smallest gold fish didn't make it through the night. He was found belly up, with all fins and scales missing, along with a chunk out of his belly. I was such a proud momma!

The piranha attack the tails of other fish to determine which one is the weakest, and then they will begin to attack the weakest link.... only to say.... GOOD-BYE ;-)

Through out the rest of the week, I fed them the rest of the fresh Shrimp Brine. I was doing yet more research on them and found out the brine can also be found in pellet form. This is much cheaper and MUCH less messy. I have already had to clean the tank twice because of the brine, both frozen and pellets.

Bad photos, but you see my little beasts there. The biggest is a little bigger than a quarter, and the smallest is the size of a dime, and yes, I did have to name the biggest "Biggie" and the smallest "Pac" I couldn't help it!
Since I don't have the proper camera to be able to show you the marking of the Red Belly Piranha, I stole one off the Internet. When the piranha are juveniles, they look like a minnow! They have silver bodies with little black dots all over and their bottom fin is orange. None of mine have the orange by the gills yet. I'm sure this will be coming in the next couple weeks.

Yesterday I went back to my newest favorite place in the city. The pet store! I have been feeding the piranha the pellet brine two-three times a day. I didn't feed them at all yesterday because I was going to go to the store and get "rosie's" which are skinnier gold fish. Once I released the rosie's into the water, the piranha attacked! One little fella didn't make it through the next hour! Biggie wrestled him down and then the others took their turns with the meal.
This is an adult Red Belly Piranha! I love that it looks like one of my nieces or nephews doused it with Elmer's and a layer of glitter!

Since they Lucky Seven have resided in their new home, I have seen changes in them. Pac was pretty beat up, barley had a tail, and already has a full tail grown back and his other fins look better too. He is one of the most shy of the seven, usually the last to surface when I turn on the lights. The first day he didn't really school with the other six, now they have seemed to let him join the school. Which is good for me because if he wouldn't of, he would of most likely been the first to go..... even before the goldfish!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

New project.

So... my newest up and coming project........ PIRANHA! Yes I know.... but I can not wait! So, I decided that I would do (or try to do) a weekly journal so I can map the progress of these little burgers. I just saw them for the first time today. They are smaller than the gold fish I have in my tank at the moment to make sure that the water had balanced out.

About a month ago, I bought a 55 gallon fish tank, stand, filter and a couple other supplies from a very nice couple off of craigslist (which has become my new addiction!). What was the damage you might ask? $50. Yes, I am the queen of bargain shopping! I had to drive about 45 minutes one way with my good friend Karle to get the big thing, but it was worth it. Since we took my old truck (the Nissan) and since dad took the stereo and speakers out of it, my big mouth was the entertainment and he knows I will be glad to entertain, since the first words when we got in the truck were- sing it woman!!!

Today, I picked up a dozen gold fish from the pet store, had the man order me some more rocks, got an additional decoration for the tank, and added water. I had gotten a dozen gold fish from wal-mart about a week and a half ago to make sure the water was ok for the piranha, they have been dieing slowly for the last week (because they are cheap, not because of the water) so I decided to flush them and get some fresh ones that came from a man I trusted. So far so good! We will see what the verdict is in the morning.