Jumbo Piranha Tramsportation Disaster Please Advise?

Hello guys

Decided to purchase some rather large red bellied piranhas today. But the transportation gone very wrong.

The shop packed the 3 red bellied piranhas all together in a large bag. They then placed this bag inside a polystyrene box and taped it all up.

Within less than a hour the piranhas chomped huge holes in the bag. The water drained into the box and the bag was crushing the fish down on their sides.

I opened the box to find about 3" of water in it woth the bag on top of all the fish on their sides.

Is it really any surprise that 6-10 inch piranhas managed to devour a bag? I don't think it is.

Here is a video of what they look like now. Do you think its likely they will all die?

With transportation costs it was over $200 for these fish

 

I think the LFS did a poor job at this. They should have really just put them in a big plastic container, like a storage box, instead of the bags.

To be honest, and I hope I'm wrong, the one on the side doesn't look well. I would do water changes to help them out and see if they'll eat. They might have some bumps and bruises from the transportation...I hope they all pull through.

 

Do you have a bubbler going? It may help to get faster flow over them to help keep them moving with them having to expand too much energy.

 

Try lowering the water level, sometimes when discus are shipped the pressure in the bag is much less than the tank, and lowering the level can help them gain equilibrium. If you are able to, that is, if it's a massive tank I don't know how practical that would be. Maybe if you have a smaller QT or similar you could test with a fish. I'm so sorry that happened, I really hope they make it for you.

 

Thank you everyone for the replies. Well to my surprise the piranha who was on his side yesterday has revived and is swimming normally.

Only problem now is that the othet 2 fish have decided he is food. They keep going in to attack him every hour or so.

 

Thank you everyone for the replies. Well to my surprise the piranha who was on his side yesterday has revived and is swimming normally.

Only problem now is that the othet 2 fish have decided he is food. They keep going in to attack him every hour or so.

Provide them with something else to focus on?

 

Provide them with something else to focus on?

Live feeders? I've never fed live fish before but if I have to then it will be done.

Do you think it would help?

 

Live feeders? I've never fed live fish before but if I have to then it will be done.

Do you think it would help?

If not something will have to happen to separate the fish so they do not turn on each other.

 

If not something will have to happen to separate the fish so they do not turn on each other.

Well I have returned the sick fish and on my way hone with a new Piranha. Think this was the biggest they had in the shop.

But I'm still worried about aggression. Because after removing the weak fish the other two piranhas started showing moderate aggression to each other

Do you think this could be because I have no decorqtions or hiding spots in the tank? But the piranhas are that large that I doubt they could hide in most hidong places anyway? I did check on youtube and a good few adult piranha tanks are just gravel and no decorations due to the shear size of the fish, I think.

Sorry for the spelling typing on phone.

 

Well I have returned the sick fish and on my way hone with a new Piranha. Think this was the biggest they had in the shop.

But I'm still worried about aggression. Because after removing the weak fish the other two piranhas started showing moderate aggression to each other

Do you think this could be because I have no decorqtions or hiding spots in the tank? But the piranhas are that large that I doubt they could hide in most hidong places anyway? I did check on youtube and a good few adult piranha tanks are just gravel and no decorations due to the shear size of the fish, I think.

Sorry for the spelling typing on phone.

I would provide them with something to break up lines in the tank, even if it is a bunch of sticks they can swim through. Try feeding them to see if it lessens aggression (even if it isn't live food, you can try pellets or whatever they have been fed).

 

I would provide them with something to break up lines in the tank, even if it is a bunch of sticks they can swim through. Try feeding them to see if it lessens aggression (even if it isn't live food, you can try pellets or whatever they have been fed).

Thank you for the help. I will try to get some stuff for the tank today. Would fake plants or something like that work?

Tried feeding them prawns this morning. One of them eaten a prawn but nothing more. They don't seem to be hungry or they just don't like prawn.

Feeders might be the only option though its clear that they love to hunt.

 

I would provide them with something to break up lines in the tank, even if it is a bunch of sticks they can swim through. Try feeding them to see if it lessens aggression (even if it isn't live food, you can try pellets or whatever they have been fed).

Thank you for the help. I will try to get some stuff for the tank today. Would fake plants or something like that work?

Tried feeding them prawns this morning. One of them eaten a prawn but nothing more. They don't seem to be hungry or they just don't like prawn.

Feeders might be the only option though its clear that they love to hunt.

 

You can try fake plants, they may try to eat or nibble on them so watch out for that (don't want them to ingest plastic).

 

Well put a bunch of live feeders in and they aren't interested in them.

These are sone odd piranhas

Are they too small for the piranhas to consider food maybe?

All they seem to care about is chasing each other around and taking chunks out of each other.