Still a very nice specimen
Hope u enjoy him.. my LFS has one and it’s a monsterFish ID
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Hope u enjoy him.. my LFS has one and it’s a monster
Dude everyone one MFK says their LFS has all these amazing fish dude my LFS is a damn petco and even that is like 20 minutes away lmao and thank you it’s a dream come true to own a pacu I started crying when I bought him it means so much to me the pacu is the fish that made me so interested in the fish keeping hobby so if it weren’t for this fish I would know what I’d be doing right nowStill a very nice specimen
my LFS has a big one as their centerpiece tank.. I think it’s around 20” or so..it’s big, tankmate is an Oscar full grown looked small next to it. Wait I’ll look for the pic on their site
Your biggest hurdle is you need to get this fish to eat. A pacu that isn’t eating is a bad sign. Pacus are ravenous eating machines. They will take a crap and swipe around so fast that they eat their own crap before it hits the bottom of the tank because they are always hungry.
looking at the size and and shape of that one I would roughly estimate 2-3 days max of it not eating and it will be gone.
entice it to eat by any means necessary or you won’t need to worry about the care of it.
I already sent you suggestions in your other thread of food and medication to use.
good luck and keep us updated.
looking at the size and and shape of that one I would roughly estimate 2-3 days max of it not eating and it will be gone.
entice it to eat by any means necessary or you won’t need to worry about the care of it.
I already sent you suggestions in your other thread of food and medication to use.
good luck and keep us updated.
So many threads on these fish and not even a concrete resolution of ID yet. Is the pacu-looking fish shown here in post#1 the same individual as the mouth shown in post#3 (which looks like a piranha)?
Post#1 here looks like a very skinny, emaciated specimen...but it looks worlds better than the clamped-up skin'n'bones critter shown in one of the other threads. Are the two even the same species? Could you possibly have one each of pacu and piranha?
And are these going into that already very crowded 40-gallon tank I just saw in another of your threads? If yes...aside from putting those other fish at risk from possible infection...it will be very difficult to maintain evan acceptable water quality, let alone the sort of perfect pristine water that weakened individuals like these two "pacuranhas" should have if they are to recover.
Post#1 here looks like a very skinny, emaciated specimen...but it looks worlds better than the clamped-up skin'n'bones critter shown in one of the other threads. Are the two even the same species? Could you possibly have one each of pacu and piranha?
And are these going into that already very crowded 40-gallon tank I just saw in another of your threads? If yes...aside from putting those other fish at risk from possible infection...it will be very difficult to maintain evan acceptable water quality, let alone the sort of perfect pristine water that weakened individuals like these two "pacuranhas" should have if they are to recover.
As far as teeth go, this is a pacu:
Many still have sharp teeth. It’s possible that they are just coming in and are sharp to be suited for a mostly fin based diet that young piranhas/pacu have.
Many still have sharp teeth. It’s possible that they are just coming in and are sharp to be suited for a mostly fin based diet that young piranhas/pacu have.
That ^ is a great pic. Those teeth still look way less "chompy" to my eye than the ones in the other mouth close-up, but that earlier one isn't nearly as clear and maybe the angle or whatever accentuates the teeth? Your pic also shows a larger fish, maybe with the teeth more advanced in their progression to adult crushing-type teeth?
That’s what I was thinking. Juvies are probably more carnivorous and adults are more herbivorous.
A lot of things are being discussed here regarding piranhas and pacus. Some are supported by the science, others are not. A reading of this relatively recent paper by Kolmann et al 2020 (DOI:10.1093/sysbio/syaa065) may help dispel or clarify the context for some of those questions about members of the family Serrasalmidae -
1) Likelihood that piranhas and true pacus will interbreed. Of course not discussed per se, but by examining the reconstructed tree it can be interpreted to be unlikely. The piranha genera (Subfamily Serrasalminae) are relatively far removed phylogenetically from the pacu genera (Subfamily Colossomatidae). There are likely genetic barriers and others so that even artificially it would be unlikely.
If anything, Metynnis silver dollars are the most closely related SD's to the piranhas, being in the same subfamily group (Serrasalminae).
2) Shape of teeth as indicative of phylogeny and of dietary habits within the whole family Serrasalmidae -
The overall conclusion is that there is enough parallelism among diverse genera and species onto common diets, and enough convergent evolution, such that diet is not a good indication of tooth morphology within the family. There are both cutting teeth, and well as molariform examples within the piranhas, and also there are clearly sharp teeth among some non-piranha, or non-carnivorous species. And yes, there probably is some degree of dietary shifts during development of some species.
That does not argue against the famous piranha-monster pictures, which will always have a very sharp toothed species shown. But it does not always allow to generalize that a single morphology is common to all species of a given group.
I believe the paper is available under Free Access at the link above (copy and paste). I post the abstract below.
1) Likelihood that piranhas and true pacus will interbreed. Of course not discussed per se, but by examining the reconstructed tree it can be interpreted to be unlikely. The piranha genera (Subfamily Serrasalminae) are relatively far removed phylogenetically from the pacu genera (Subfamily Colossomatidae). There are likely genetic barriers and others so that even artificially it would be unlikely.
If anything, Metynnis silver dollars are the most closely related SD's to the piranhas, being in the same subfamily group (Serrasalminae).
2) Shape of teeth as indicative of phylogeny and of dietary habits within the whole family Serrasalmidae -
The overall conclusion is that there is enough parallelism among diverse genera and species onto common diets, and enough convergent evolution, such that diet is not a good indication of tooth morphology within the family. There are both cutting teeth, and well as molariform examples within the piranhas, and also there are clearly sharp teeth among some non-piranha, or non-carnivorous species. And yes, there probably is some degree of dietary shifts during development of some species.
That does not argue against the famous piranha-monster pictures, which will always have a very sharp toothed species shown. But it does not always allow to generalize that a single morphology is common to all species of a given group.
I believe the paper is available under Free Access at the link above (copy and paste). I post the abstract below.
