Pacu's arnt necesarily peaceful

[viciouspisces]

well heres a lesson i recently learned the hard way - that red belly pacus are not necesarrily peaceful shy community fish (which id read )I lost a beautiful 18" leiarius pictus catfish do to a 7" pacus beating :eek: .i had the pacu in his own grow out tank but decided to put him back in my 360g w/ my 15" giant gourami and catfish .All was fine ,or so it seemed until the day before yesterday when I noticed my catfish was pretty mangled (shredded fins and tail and numerous bite marks on his side some bloody looking) I moved him to a hospital tank went to work the next day, to come home and find him upside down- dead :cry: .Heres another lesson I learned - I need to thoughly check my fish daily ! Was busy w/ long hours at work last week and took for granted that i didnt see any aggression in that tank.At first i thought was the gourami but now i dont think so -they were together a long time .anyways now i get to monitor the two -dont think the gourami will take any 'nonsense' from the pacu -she seems to hate charcharins -killed two 7" silver dollars already .Sorry just wanted to vent this.

[DeLgAdO]

My condolence

sorry for your loss, sucks when you lose a fish. i lost a tinfoil barb to a stupid water change.

[Peanut_Power]

ditto...stupid water changes...lol....sorry bout your pictus!! Must've sucked!! :(.....what type of gourami? RTGG? or just regular giant?

[viciouspisces]

ditto...stupid water changes...lol....sorry bout your pictus!! Must've sucked!! :(.....what type of gourami? RTGG? or just regular giant?
yeah that was a beautiful big ,immpressive catfish .My giant gourami is the one in my avatar-she (Beatrice I call her ) is a giant red tail ,but females from what I understand dont have the nice color & red tails.She does have an orangeish rim around her tail.

[Peanut_Power]

I was gonna ask you if that was it in your avatar...RTGG are my fav. type of giant gourami...just awesome lookin as adults! Tempted ot pick myself up a few...having trouble finding some youngins at a good price though...:(

[viciouspisces]

I was gonna ask you if that was it in your avatar...RTGG are my fav. type of giant gourami...just awesome lookin as adults! Tempted ot pick myself up a few...having trouble finding some youngins at a good price though...:(
yeah giant gouramis are fun fish too keep -major characters! But messy pigs..lol.Beartice likes to chase fingers and will open her huge mouth to snap at the glass I got her from somethingsphishy (http://www.somethingsphishy.com/) She flew all the way from Florida to Hawaii as a 5" baby .Heres a pic of her trying to kiss/bite my cat

[CentralMayhem]

put him in with a school of RBP's and see how well he fits in.

[piranha45]

he will fit in exceedingly well, and will drastically outgrow his piranha tankmates. That's what pacus are born to do in the wild, after all...

[viciouspisces]

put him in with a school of RBP's and see how well he fits in.
who my 'killer pacu'? lol very tempting at this point!

[piranha45]

prepare to be disappointed if you do, lol

[rayman45]

there mean hungy bastards

[viciouspisces]

yeah dont get me wrong i do like this fish (just ticked that he did that) ,its my first pacu so i had no idea (other then their pigs and grow fast) what to expect.I read theyll eat small fish ,but i was more worried of the pacu getting eaten by the catfish then the other way around .Well another lesson - actual experience is the best teacher (compared to bits and peices of random internet searches)

[KNH]

How long has it taken for your GG to go from 5" to 15"? I have a Pacu in the same tank as a GG as well and was wondering if the GG will grow at a similar pace?

[Hasi]

wow 18" pictus? damn sorry bout your loss thats on big pictus - any pics?

[Nate_N_Nicole]

I suffered the same type of loss I had anTiger oscar that was only a year old but was already 12 inches long and I had him in with some pretty mean company I had a green terror that was about 9inches two Albino oscars that were about 10 inches and a 6 inch Butta that ruled the tank... Well I figured I need another big guy to maybe calm down the butta cause he was actully beating the mess out of my green terror... Well I got a 10inch Black Pacu, well my plan actually work the butta started beating on the BP instead, that only lasted a few hours maybe days but the BP started Beating on the Tiger Oscar I think he only lasted maybe a week... I tried bringin him back but to much damage I suppose.... But I'm Happy to say that my butta ended up killing him in about 3 months.... :headbang2 I hated that fish, I loved that oscar... But I guess thats what you get for not knowing what can actully go with what... (I was new at this hobby at the time)

[viciouspisces]

How long has it taken for your GG to go from 5" to 15"? I have a Pacu in the same tank as a GG as well and was wondering if the GG will grow at a similar pace?
My giant gourami grew a steady 1" (sometimes more) a month untill about 12" and shes slowing down a little (still growing though).Well I only had the pacu a little less then a month but he's at least a half inch bigger then when I first got him .So..so far seems like very similar growth rates.

[kevin714]

[QUOTE=viciouspisces .My giant gourami is the one in my avatar-she (Beatrice I call her ) is a giant red tail ,but females from what I understand dont have the nice color & red tails.She does have an orangeish rim around her tail.[/QUOTE]


Is this true? Female red tails don't have the same color as the males? And does anyone know how to sex giant red tails. I just bought a 3'' one and I hope its a male. He has the color as did all the ones with him.

[phene4grene420]

i don't know why anybody would consider pacus as peaceful....maybe because their huge mouth looks like it's always smiling? i had one, had to give it up by the time it got about 7 inches. it would eat anything that would fit in its mouth and terrorize anything that didn't.....and it was sharing a tank with an even bigger oscar and 6 rbpiranhas all about 4 inches

[viciouspisces]

I guess my thinking was the pacu would be like a seriously big silver dollar -i was wrong on that :grinno: .Update ~my GG and pacu are just fine together no ripped fins ,no problems,all is well w/ them lol .. they eat together ,swim together they even sleep side to side ! (dont know why the catfish caught hell, but Im not gonna put another any time soon :( ) As far as my giant gourami is concerned I had doubts too when she reached about 8-10" as to weither she was a rtgg or another type of osphronemus .

[Loubard]

I all comes down to your own situation and your own fish! Book can tell what they want, but it all comes down to (personal) experience, that's why this site is so great! Sorry for you loos, thanks for sharing!

[Caveman]

I spit on Pacus but your Gourami is very nice.

[The TRUST]

Sorry for the Loss of the Pictus

BTW you have a regular Giant Gourami and not a Red Tail Giant Gourami.

[viciouspisces]

lol ok,ok I give up .Ill just call her an osphronemus gourami from now on :p .I dont know enough about them, but since evryone everywhere i post her, says shes a regular giant gourami (except the breeder) I'll just go with the generic name .Itd be interesting to find out for sure tho, havent been able to come across any site that show pics or states that females have differnt coloration then the male red tails :confused:

[mon]

pacus are nasty fish , they seem peaceful but are actually no nonsense fish...

[leviathon13]

yeah, I remember the first pacus I ever owned went into a tank w/ a large silver arrowana . caught them biting the pelvic fins off my aro. needlecc to say they went back to the lfs.

[Vince]

HAH! sorry for your loss brudah...this is my loss here.

I have a 12 inch Chinese perch, and 6 inch Fahaka with a 12" pacu. Because all this time, I thought this pacu is harmless. WELL BS, this pacu is a freak and it keeps tearing **** up in my tank. So it ended up killing my fahaka and the chinese perch. I'ma grill this sucka and squeeze some lemon and pepper on it, and have some shots of tequila...this fish is for a big pond....but now it's gonna be my beer food.

[viciouspisces]

thanks for all the comments -and sorry to hear about all the others whove lost fish to pacus -i dont think id ever tell someone that pacus are cool fish lol. Btw this fish has grown at least an inch since I posted this topic,Heres a pic of the two friends (sorry the windows a little dirty)

[antonyg2]

[QUOTE=Btw this fish has grown at least an inch since I posted this topic[/QUOTE]

LOL! Never had pacu before but this is incredible growing...

BTW, I have silver dollars that eat lot of earthworms and many of my small fishes.
And I was told that they are strictly herbivore when I bought them...

[clp2051]

I coudnt believe it ...but my Pacu Ate my OSCAR!!! The Pacu was bigger but,,, I thought the oscar could hold it own..but i was wrong :(

[viciouspisces]

yeah pacus do have a nasty looking set of teeth-on mine they are very visable now.hes giving my GG quite the competion for food - I gotta feed these 2 pigs at least 3-4X's a day :eek: lol

[loach43]

From my experience, pacus vary in aggression from fish to fish. Most of em have the usual tendency to let the other fish in the tank know not to mess with it, but I've seen individuals that were unusually peaceful as if they'd had a lobotomy. I think that obtaining a docile pacu is luck of the draw. I'm referring of course to pacus with a few years on them but not necessarily old. Youngsters seem to be a different story and nip every fin in sight unless you give them lots-o gallons.

[bpeerso]

Yeah man

[viciouspisces]

LOL! Never had pacu before but this is incredible growing.
omg !!!! lol (just thought Id update ) this same pacu is near 10+" already :WHOA: maaaan ...and i thought silver aros grew fast!(Ill take some pics later)Anyone have any info on theyre growth rate -does that continue? or do they reach a point and slow a bit? I mean ,I have a big enough tank and the resourses to get a bigger -just wondering tho (Im a 'plan-o-holic') So far 'Paco' (the pacu -not original name , i know .. )and 'Beatrice' my osphronemus are cool together- in fact stick together like lovers - so much so ,its almost wierd lol Any pacu growth info sincerly appreicated :thumbsup:

[viciouspisces]

sorry wanted to edit and post this pics but too late - heres a pic when I first got this 'cute little killer' ,now one of my 'ever growing monster' taken last night

[viciouspisces]

sorry wanted to edit and post this pics but too late - heres a pic when I first got this 'cute little killer' ,now one of my 'ever growing monster' taken last night this is about 2 months growth -from5" to 10" :eek:

[peanut]

hi i keep pacu and giant gourami they get on ok they have the odd fight but not often

[messiner]

i had one a year ago and he grew fast. He had a nasty little habit of biting the head off his tankmates.

[solmarshal]

I just lost my brand new Reed fish when he swam up the filtration tube and drowned himself. i really enjoyed watching him swim.

[solmarshal]

Ive been having trouble finding any pacus in my area. I owned one once and really enjoyed watching him. Also he seemed to grow in size fast. im a little scared to try mail order fish. Can sombody tell me of one with a high customer ranking?

[peanut]

ive had mine for 5 years its about 22inch but its been that for a couple of years its seemed to have stoped growing

[guppy]

Hiya Solmarshal, welcome to MFK!
Check the Buy ans sell forum here, they show up from time to time and the sellers have a stake in being reliable. Individual members also have them listed quite often, just recently there were 2 in the 10"+ range for free, you pay shipping. Once they get that size they are fairly easy to find. Believe it or not both Walmart and Petco usually carry them pretty cheaply, $5-6. Sorry about your reed fish, I use a little aquarium silicone to hold the excluder cap in place, just a spot of it, it is soft enough that I can pull the cap off when I need to but strong enough that fish don't knock it off.

[Chuck & Veronica]

Yah, you're right. Some Pacu's are terrors. Others are as peaceful as can be. It depends on the personality of the individual fish.

Chuck

[option]

my pacu ain't friendly also,it cause my spotted gar lower snout tear during a fight for feeder