Pacu happier in a school?

[Andyroo]

Greetings.
A villa-pond client is interested in albino pacu.
Are they "happier" in singles, pairs, groups? Does this change with maturity? In public aquarium the big ones seem to swim alone.

The ponds are pretty big, maybe 12' x 8' x 20" deep, all quietly over-filtered with heaps of flow. There are two parallel systems/ponds at this size and another of same footprint but only ~8" deep with rift valley cichlids, which will be the grow-out for the pacu (also tell me about sunburn in albino fish). They will be together to start, then distributed to the main ponds.

Main ponds have oscars (3) & iridescent sharks (3) & native pond turtle (5), but mostly a runaway population of nile tilapia that get hand-line culled from time to time (shedloads, all sizes). I agree that it'll get a little crowded even at that size pond... though I'm an under-stock kind'a guy.

 

[tlindsey]

Greetings.
A villa-pond client is interested in albino pacu.
Are they "happier" in singles, pairs, groups? Does this change with maturity? In public aquarium the big ones seem to swim alone.

The ponds are pretty big, maybe 12' x 8' x 20" deep, all quietly over-filtered with heaps of flow. There are two parallel systems/ponds at this size and another of same footprint but only ~8" deep with rift valley cichlids, which will be the grow-out for the pacu (also tell me about sunburn in albino fish). They will be together to start, then distributed to the main ponds.

Main ponds have oscars (3) & iridescent sharks (3) & native pond turtle (5), but mostly a runaway population of nile tilapia that get hand-line culled from time to time (shedloads, all sizes). I agree that it'll get a little crowded even at that size pond... though I'm an under-stock kind'a guy.

Old threadhttps://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/stocking.50526/page-2

 

[kno4te]

Greetings.
A villa-pond client is interested in albino pacu.
Are they "happier" in singles, pairs, groups? Does this change with maturity? In public aquarium the big ones seem to swim alone.

The ponds are pretty big, maybe 12' x 8' x 20" deep, all quietly over-filtered with heaps of flow. There are two parallel systems/ponds at this size and another of same footprint but only ~8" deep with rift valley cichlids, which will be the grow-out for the pacu (also tell me about sunburn in albino fish). They will be together to start, then distributed to the main ponds.

Main ponds have oscars (3) & iridescent sharks (3) & native pond turtle (5), but mostly a runaway population of nile tilapia that get hand-line culled from time to time (shedloads, all sizes). I agree that it'll get a little crowded even at that size pond... though I'm an under-stock kind'a guy.

Adults are solitary if I remember right. Should be fine with iridescent sharks if same size. Can ask pacu mom for her opinion.

 

[Andyroo]

tlindsey 's link says minimum = 3, 5 = better.... which I don't think a 12 x 8 pond will handle, not when there's already growing iridescents in there. Are adults actually solitary, as we see in big public Amazon set-ups? What's Pacu Mom's input?

I fully expect that the client will fall in love with these fish and expand his system...
... but can't plan for that in good concience.

 

[Andyroo]

Three independent ponds. The left & right are 20~24" deep, the middle one is 8~10" deep with 2' deep sumps under the foreground lilies. The lilies in the righthand deep pond are now gone, eaten by native sliders (turtles).
Plastic planter-pots have since been replaced with square tropical hardwood, and all in-water plants reworked. Hving said that, I've not been back since May~ish...

 

[kno4te]

Great looking pond.