Pacu I rescued from Petco

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
They sell Pacu at Petco. What a shame. They should put them next to the cobras for kids.

I would plan on a 50'x10'x8' tank. Yes those are feet. You really don't need one that big, but I would certainly like to see another mega tank thread.
 
Looks like he is going to be fine. He will go in the 135 when I get it set up. And we are making plans for something larger.
 
Switch it to a veggie diet, you'll have better luck. With age, they tend to develop problems with a meat based diet.

And like was said, you'll want something HUGE to house that guy within about a year.
 
Listen to zoodiver he has many of these monsters in his work tank. They get very massive, not only lengthwise, but heightwise also. From what I have seen in a proper encloser they can get close to their wild size in a home setting. They can develope HITH if you are not careful.
 
not to be rude, but when people recuse fish like this from petstore all it does is make them think there is a demand for the fish and they will order even more. I also do not consider buying a fish from a LFS on most circumstances as a recuse. if that is the case I recused all my fish from a LFS because they were all little and in a tank too small for them to live in forever. If you had gotten it from someones hope or shop and then brought it home from miscare then maybe. I have truly recused a pacu. It was in a 29 and 10 inches long... It was so far gone... I got it back to swimming around in a pond for a while, but after a year, he passed. Could not recover...he was too skittish even for a pacu...

I am glad that the fish went to a better home... and glad that you would take all that is needed to take care of the fish.
 
I rescued my Pacu from a friend of mine who bought the fish for their 10G tank of raw sewage(it was setup about 3 years without a single waterchange...just got ripped down time to time), she had the Pacu a couple of months it grew from less than an inch to 3" and had fugus, some sort of bacterial infection and hell knows what other sorts of disease. She was just going to flush the fish and buy another instead of treating it...I took him home instead. I put the fish in a 20G long...with good water quality, and treated its diseases. Took a good week or two of constant medication and after he got over that he developed ick...so i treated that. I had that fish a bit over a year....it nearly died on me a hundred times the first month I had it....but now its an absolutely beautiful 12" or so fish. Ive never actually measured him tho.

Despite what most people report about Pacu being skitish or flighty...mine is totally chill and has NEVER flipped out on me. Hes very pet-like and owner responsive, hes never messed with my decor and my 150G tank has alot of driftwood and rocks and things. I expect that the 150G will do him for another year to year and a half depending on how his growth rate goes between now and then. Ill let him get to about 17-18" before I upgrade. My tank is a custom size and has a 20" width so he should be good for awhile longer. I saw a tank at my LFS it was a 225G(72*30*24), they only wanted 700bucks for the tank, cabinet and canopy....and that would be a decent home for a Pacu for almost its entire life if not entire life. Most redbellies in the home tank rarely get over 24", and 30" seems to be an extreme rarity.

I think your Pacu is a lovely example of the species. Depending on how your fish was treated in the past and its genetic make up will affect its growth rate. But no matter how **** like either of those are....the fish will definatly need a larger tank in the near future. Definatly get something 30" wide when you do upgrade, even if you can only go 6ft in length...the ability to turn is more important IMO.
 
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