AIBU?
To think a man who feeds LIVE goldfish to his Piranhas is a bad bet?
MilkandWine · 20/04/2011 17:03
This honestly isin't a wind up.
A good friend of mine has been going out with her new bloke for a few months now and seems fairly smitten. He is away working for the week and she is looking after his cat whilst he is away. Today I went round the flat with her and saw that he has a huge tank with 6 Piranhas in his living room!
Now each to their own but then on closer inspection I saw 2 terrified goldfish with all their fins bitten off cowering behind the filter! This guy feeds LIVE goldfish to his Piranhas!!!!!!!! Now I used to go to college with a lad years ago who kept piranhas and I know there is no need whatsoever to feed them live food. They are just as happy eating dead stuff.
So basically this guys idea of evening entertainment would seem to be watching live goldfish get ripped apart.
I am sorry but I honestly think this is a huge red warning flag and my friend needs to bloody well heed it. What sort of man is he????????? Wierdest thing of all is my friend is a huge animal lover and the last person I would have imagined stomaching such awful behaviour.
Oh and the fish are now in my parents pond. I fished them out and took them over there. No bloody way I was letting the poor little buggers get eaten alive! I think I'm still a bit traumatised.
zukiecat · 20/04/2011 17:08
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MilkandWine · 20/04/2011 17:08
Insomnia11- My friend was with me in the flat. I was really shocked and she just kept saying "I know it's awful but I try not to look". She then said he told her they HAVE to have live food but I know that is true.
She has been single for ages and I think she is trying to turn a blind eye to it but I don't think I could! It would be a deal breaker for me!
bubblecoral · 20/04/2011 17:09
Fish eat other fish live in the oceans and rivers you know!
It's not that uncommon for people to give fish other live fish to eat. We have an aquarium and the fish shop suggested we could buy those little blue neon tetras for one of our fish, but there was no way I was having that massacre going on in my living room! So it's not neccesary, but it does happen. Sounds a bit wierd that he's using goldfish though, something that could be eaten whole would be much more suitable. I'll ask dh when he gets home, he knows more about these things than I do.
2rebecca · 20/04/2011 17:15
One of my relatives used to have pyranhas and he's a lovely bloke. We used to feed live red worms and daphnea to tropical fish as kids. feeding a goldfish is only a matter of size.
I would find a bloke who enjoyed that sort of thing a bit creepy though, but then we used to enjoy watching the guppies eat the daphnia so that's a bit hypocritical.
I don't have any sort of pet now though and like animals to be in the wild with other animals not in houses or bowls.
psychoveggie · 20/04/2011 17:20
Em, if their fins are bitten off aren't they just going to die a slow death in your parents' pond anyway!?
You don't know that this guy hasn't been informed differently and thinks they do need to be fed live food (from a quick google this seems quite possible). I can understand you might be a bit wary of this guy though.
Vallhala · 20/04/2011 17:25
YANBU.
Manatee, I believe that in the UK it's illegal to feed live creatures to a 'pet' snake. It;s certainly pretty immoral.
I really don't like or understand a rapidly increasing number of the human race. I'll just add piranha-man and mouse-feeding-man to that list. 
dangalf · 20/04/2011 17:35
My BIL feeds live grasshoppers to his lizards. If it was a smaller fish would you be less upset? It wouldn't be a dealbreaker as far as I'm concerned. not necessarily my cup of tea but each to their own. Goldfish are vorcaious little buggers anyway - I had one that ate all my other fish so I'm not too distraught at their plight!
cory · 20/04/2011 17:45
The situation in the wild is totally different and not at all an excuse for feeding live fish in a tank. Basically in the wild you either get eaten or you get away: fish in a tank with a predator otoh will live in constant stress with no escape- and there is no doubt that fish react very badly to stress.
So it's a similar difference to rearing cattle for killing and maltreating cattle that are being reared for killing by keeping them under stressful conditions- not usually seen as the same thing. And goldfish are far more intelligent than daphnia, with which comes a greater capacity for fear and stress.
And feeding live fish is indeed illegal.
Not to mention that goldfish are not nutritionally very good, so he's not even looking after his piranhas properly. And they certainly do not need live food: there are some fish that are very difficult to wean onto artificial food, but not piranhas.
This man is an idiot and that would be a dealbreaker for me. It is clear that he only keeps those fish to make himself believe he is really dashing and daring, bleurgghhh.
Melly19MummyToBe · 20/04/2011 18:19
My mum used to have 2 pythons and she fed them live mice, mind you, this was a long time ago when it was probably ok to feed live food (besides bugs) to pets. I know it was at least 20 years because I don't think I was even born when she had them.
Disclaimer : I only say probably ok, because obviously I was not around then, so don't know what peoples attitudes were back then to live food.
WomblingUpsideDown · 20/04/2011 18:34
I feed live crickets, morioworms and wax worms to my lizard.
I feed live worms and shrimps to my fish.
My ferrets catch their own rabbits.
My dog occasionally catches rabbits to eat.
The terrapin used to eat tadpoles and maggots.
I encourage the chickens to eat slugs.
My g'pig and rabbit have to stick to grass!
Does this make me a bad person?
piprabbit · 20/04/2011 18:41
I used to go to a pub that had a lovely tank full of pretty, little, baby piranhas. They have scales that are silvery with a lovely pinky red belly - so very attractive.
Over the weeks the piranhas gradually disappeared until there was just one huge, smug-looking one left 
.
MilkandWine · 20/04/2011 21:48
I had no idea that feeding live fish was illegal. I totally get what people say about it being part of nature for things to eat other things ect. For me personally though a man who is happy to sit in his living room watching live creatures getting devoured is a little odd. He is one of those over the top macho types though so probably thinks the Piranhas enhance his machismo. I rather suspect the Piranhas spend their nights thinking 'We are going to eat you someday'.
Oh regarding the goldfish dying anyway cos their fins have gone I'm hoping they won't. Parents had a goldfish that the cat caught last year and nibbled it's fins away. They rescued it, put it back in the pond and it's fins grew back and it is fine (If slightly covered in white scars). I just couldn't have left them, poor little buggers looked terrified!
dittany · 20/04/2011 21:52
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