View Full Version : Do pacus tear/eat plants?
I'm thinking of getting a shoal of 2'' pacus for my planted South American tank, but I worried the plants will become food for them... What do you think?
DanDanUK
06-13-2005, 10:16 AM
The plants will become food but the easiest way, if you have space is to cheat and grow your plants in pots. Have 2 or 3 your show tank and grow on 6 or 8 in your plant tank so that you can rotate them. If you have a deep tank, switch the plants when you do a water change, otherwise you will need a snorkel to reach the bottom! also check that you are giving them enough of the right foods. If their dentition changes, so does there diet; mature fish will eat such things as unsalted almonds!
DanDanUK
06-13-2005, 10:53 AM
Are you also aware that your 2" Pacu's will grow to be 40" monsters.
piranha45
06-13-2005, 4:45 PM
Your plants will be eaten!
Yeah they will be eaten by the pacus.
I'm aware that pacus can grow to 1 metre long. I'm just planning on keeping mine to about 10'' then sell or give them away.
robby
06-20-2005, 12:42 AM
The problem is that getting rid of a 10" fish isn't as easy as you would think. If that's your goal, go with a silver dollar. Too many pacus end up sitting at the LFS waiting to die or for a saint with a pond to come by, or dumped in a river which I'm not even going to begin to get into because I could rant all night.
Pacus don't make good pets unless yr ready to house them for their entire lives.
piranha45
06-20-2005, 12:43 AM
well said. You could always eat them, though. South Americans seem to love their meat.
robby
06-20-2005, 12:47 AM
Yeah, but in SA their diet has a lot of fruit in it. I'm sure they taste great. Hopefully I'll do some grad work down there in a coupla years and find out...
aztecfred
06-26-2005, 1:48 AM
Its like giving a kid Peanut butter Captain Crunch!
And they like fruit also.
So,I would pass on the planted tank, or perhaps chose another species with which to stock the tank with.
Sincerely,
Aztec Fred