View Full Version : red bellie and black pacus
DeLgAdO
11-23-2005, 1:39 PM
whats the difference? are they both the same species?
it seems baby red bellies grow up into black pacus
is their any difference in their babys?
thay are different. they look different. blacks get twice the size.
DeLgAdO
11-23-2005, 1:42 PM
thay are different. they look different. blacks get twice the size.
all adult pacus look the same to me.
how can you tell them apart?
it seems the red disapears as they get old and then they looks like a black
Oddball
11-23-2005, 1:59 PM
They're similar in appearance. But, the black has no red in the abdomen and is deeper bodied (the head looks proportionately smaller).
Left - Piaractus brachypomus - red-belly pacu - to 24"
Right - Colossoma macropomum - black pacu - to 36"
DeLgAdO
11-23-2005, 5:26 PM
so can the babys be told apart or do they both have red bellies?
Oddball
11-23-2005, 9:12 PM
The black is infrequently sold. The reason you see a lot of young pacus available with red bellies is because they're the 24" red belly pacu from commercial farms.
guppy
11-24-2005, 12:15 AM
Does anyone know why we don't get yellow belly pacu, the caranha, (Piaractus mesopotamicus)? I bet there is a market for them, they only get to 16" and are mainly fruit and nut eaters.
messiner
11-24-2005, 12:19 AM
that sucker is cool lookin and i WANT ONE!
Oddball
11-24-2005, 12:38 AM
It's hard to say why we don't see these. They exist in greater numbers, in the wild and in aquaculture, than the 2 more common species. Fisheries and sports-fishing sites have this species listed as attaining 21" in length and 25lbs. Still a tank-buster species.
DeLgAdO
11-24-2005, 1:32 AM
black pacus are my favorite
THE TRUE MONSTER OF MONSTERS!!!! :headbang2
sucks that their sold infrequently :(
benzjamin13
11-24-2005, 2:03 AM
I like pacus, but man...they get insanely BIG. That yellow belly one looks awsome. I wish we would see more of those in the hobby.
It's hard to say why we don't see these. They exist in greater numbers, in the wild and in aquaculture, than the 2 more common species. Fisheries and sports-fishing sites have this species listed as attaining 21" in length and 25lbs. Still a tank-buster species.
I have never seen one, just the entry in fishbase, even 21" is easier to house than 36" and I really like the looks.
Fried_fish
11-26-2005, 4:33 PM
Does anyone know why we don't get yellow belly pacu, the caranha, (Piaractus mesopotamicus)? I bet there is a market for them, they only get to 16" and are mainly fruit and nut eaters.
pretty rare they use to bring alot about 7-8 years ago but now they are so rare not many people know yellow bellied pacus exist.
tigerfangs
11-30-2005, 6:26 AM
OK, I'm going to go out on a limb here. Oddball, the two fish you posted pictures of are both Red Bellied Pacus. Red bellied Pacus lose all the red as they mature. Black Pacu has a more elongated shape (its almost a straight line between its dorsal fin and head), and its anal fin is also much bigger and looks somewhat exagerrated when compared. I'll do a search and see what I come up with.
tigerfangs
11-30-2005, 6:38 AM
OK, her's what I found and know to be the Black Pacu
http://opefe.com/colossoma.html
Oddball
11-30-2005, 10:36 AM
I grabbed the pics from fishbase (from separate listings) indicated as adult RB and adult black pacus.
tigerfangs
11-30-2005, 2:15 PM
Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad info and unaccurate pics out there. Ex: in the OPEFE site I pulled up, it stated that the fish only grows to 400mm :ROFL: , these things get huge (4'+).
benzjamin13
11-30-2005, 3:10 PM
pretty rare they use to bring alot about 7-8 years ago but now they are so rare not many people know yellow bellied pacus exist.
Wow...really?! I don't remember them at all being in the pet trade. May be they just weren't in California :confused: I've never seen them before so I didn't know they existed. They look cool though. Does the yellow fade out like the reds?
Fried_fish
12-01-2005, 5:44 PM
Wow...really?! I don't remember them at all being in the pet trade. May be they just weren't in California :confused: I've never seen them before so I didn't know they existed. They look cool though. Does the yellow fade out like the reds?
Not as much as the RB pacus. As an adult you should still see some yellow varies with the fish. The one reason why you probably didn't see them in cali because you weren't actually looking for them. Not all petstores will have them but most should in the east coast at least. West coast people get better variety from Asia while east coast people get better variety from s. america
DeLgAdO
12-01-2005, 5:49 PM
Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad info and unaccurate pics out there. Ex: in the OPEFE site I pulled up, it stated that the fish only grows to 400mm :ROFL: , these things get huge (4'+).
if you think thats bad i found a site that said the min tank size for a RTC is 30gal :ROFL: :screwy:
Chuck & Veronica
12-02-2005, 9:43 AM
Does anyone know why we don't get yellow belly pacu, the caranha, (Piaractus mesopotamicus)? I bet there is a market for them, they only get to 16" and are mainly fruit and nut eaters.
Dang, Guppy, thanks for posting this. I never knew about this species of Pacu. It's a beauty, for sure. I think the RBs are pretty too, but this one has the added advantage of not getting insanely big. I like that. I worry about when my two monsters are full grown. I'll probably have to build an indoor pond or something for them.
Here's a pic of our babies:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/TheChuckster/Katya-Sasha-small.jpg
They're only three-four months old.
Chuck
Chuck & Veronica
12-02-2005, 9:48 AM
black pacus are my favorite
THE TRUE MONSTER OF MONSTERS!!!! :headbang2
sucks that their sold infrequently :(
I'm glad they're hard to find. Because if they weren't, unsuspecting fishkeepers would be buying these all the time, and then having to kill them when they outgrew people's 10g tanks. Frankly, this species can only be housed in something only approaching the size of what's built in a public aquarium.
I know one fishkeeper who had one, but she's got a 2,400 gallon indoor pond built for the sucker. I think it's something like 25 years old now and over three feet long.
Chuck
guppy
12-02-2005, 12:32 PM
Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad info and unaccurate pics out there. Ex: in the OPEFE site I pulled up, it stated that the fish only grows to 400mm :ROFL: , these things get huge (4'+).
Yeah, even fishbase mises a few errors, as examples they have a salmon picture in the cyprinids listings and a characin in with the gar pics.
crazy clowntang
08-05-2008, 8:54 AM
i wish they still offered the yellow belly pacus
dreamandscheme
08-05-2008, 11:33 PM
isn't there a blue pacu that stays under 20"?
bigspizz
08-05-2008, 11:36 PM
:( I thought Del was back...This thread is a toddler. Although I have no problem with 3 year old threads getting bumped.
dreamandscheme
08-05-2008, 11:39 PM
wow, i didn't even notice the date
fishlover88
08-06-2008, 3:35 AM
Yeah this is a cool thread. I thought it was kinda weird i havent seen guppy in awhile now.
Anyways there is a sheep pacu (Ossubtus xinguense
)that is really cool looking and only grows to 6-7" according to fishbase. But im not sure if these are closely related to Red, black, or yellow pacus.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18015&highlight=sheep+pacu
catfishlover106
08-06-2008, 3:48 AM
wow this is interesting :popcorn: the yellow bellied pacu looks so cool and don't grow into the tankbusters as the Red bellied and Black pacu