New acharas

[Matteus]

Thank you. I bet you know it all too well.

I love it so much tho, if it's even a remote possibility to keep it through the move, I am all in. Almost don't even care if it is expensive. (To a certain point or my wife will have words)

How long have you had your pacus for? Have you grown any of them from baby or were they all rescues?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Thank you. I bet you know it all too well.

I love it so much tho, if it's even a remote possibility to keep it through the move, I am all in. Almost don't even care if it is expensive. (To a certain point or my wife will have words)

How long have you had your pacus for? Have you grown any of them from baby or were they all rescues?

That made me chuckle... she'll have some words alright. If you are lucky, she'll choose them carefully.

The best thing for you to do is to give it to someone qualified before you move. Save yourself money and heaps of stress and work and time.

The longest I had a pacu for is 7 years. That's how old is my biggest albino is which has gone from 4" to 30"+ long and 18"+ tall at the moment. Probably about 25-30 lbs. Still roughly half grown by weight.

 

[Matteus]

Wow. Such a beast. I would imagine they get quite thick from that point.

Mine was roughly 4-5" in December when I got it and now 1'. Some days I look at it and swear I notice it bigger over night. Unreal how fast it grows.

 

[Matteus]

So an update on these guys. I gave one to a friend with a big tank who got me back into the hobby after many years.

The other one is looking fairly healthy and is very responsive to food. It seems to love veggies. It has eaten full slices of cucumbers, carrot, peas, algae discs, quite voraciously in fact. I thought for sure it was more carnivorous but these seem to be preferred.

My pleco is very hardy and strong willed, but this one often forces its way with the pleco. Especially when it comes to algae discs.

 

[Matteus]

Here they are hanging out together. The achara is sitting at roughly 10” long and I’d say 2.5-3” wide mouth

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

So an update on these guys. I gave one to a friend with a big tank who got me back into the hobby after many years.

The other one isn’t looking fairly healthy and is very responsive to food. It seems to love veggies. It has eaten full slices of cucumbers, carrot, peas, algae discs, quite voraciously in fact. I thought for sure it was more carnivorous but these seem to be preferred.

My pleco is very hardy and strong willed, but this one often forces its way with the pleco. Especially when it comes to algae discs.

Very peculiar. I wonder how this develops.

 

[Matteus]

Very peculiar. I wonder how this develops.

I figure the veggies are most likely good for it so I’m not complaining, but it was a surprise how it seems to prefer vegetable matter.

 

[Matteus]

So I feel like the achara “Jean” has had a bit of a growth spurt since eating so much veggie matter. It came in and was half the size of the pleco. And now it’s almost twice the size of the pleco.

It seems as if they have a very unique friendship. When I first got the acharas the other one would pick on this one but the pleco would protect it. It would literally put itself in between the 2 acharas. Even now they are inseparable. Any time I try to look at jean the pleco comes immediately as if to stand guard. It’s actually kind of funny.

Jean sat against the glass the other day for a few mins and I was able to run my tape measure and it is roughly 13” now. I’d say pleco is roughly 7-8”

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Glad to hear. Achara growth is one of the fastest to about 1.5' among all catfish, on par with RTC, which is a benchmark.

Hard to be sure from these photos but does the head and snout look funny on this achara?

 

[Matteus]

Glad to hear. Achara growth is one of the fastest to about 1.5' among all catfish, on par with RTC, which is a benchmark.

Hard to be sure from these photos but does the head and snout look funny on this achara?

Yes. This one has a crooked mouth, looks like it had a stroke, with a staggered lip. And that is why I named it jean, after Jean Chrétien a Canadian prime minister who had a staggered lip.

It started out as the less dominant one, but later seemed to become the alpha of the 2. Now it’s officially the boss of the tank, even though the ornate poly would beg to differ. Lol