My two pacu are getting large and was wondering if I could put them in with my koi in an outside 500 gal hot tub. They are now housed in a 55 gal aquarium with my Oscars.
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Pacu with Koi ?
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Re: Pacu with Koi ?
Yes, I have made a koi pond out of our unused hot tub that was sunk into our deck, instead of pulling it out. It has worked out very well for the last 3 years. My two pacu play nicely together and seem not to bother our oscars. The girl at Petsmart suggested putting the pacu in with the Koi but wanted to ask expert advice here.
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Re: Pacu with Koi ?
The Koi are approx 10 inches and the Pacu approx 6 inches...neither seem aggressive..as in my koi or my pacu..they sold me the Algae Thins to feed the Pacu..they also eat the Oscars Cichlid Gold feed..the Oscars do their fair share in grabbing the algae thins also..the only fear I have is that the Pacu would eat up all the koi food as fast as I could throw it in..because they are so piggy.. My Koi eat the koi feed and I would also have plans to put the algae thins in for the Pacu if they are moved to the hot tub. Before I had put the koi in the hot tub I had goldfish and lots of plants, after reading that koi would root up plants I took them out and also that way I could really enjoy looking at them instead of looking for them..I have a bio filter going and the uv light also..and was going to wait till the water temp was inline with the water the Pacu are in now in the aquarium before introducing them into the hot tub. I moved my goldfish out into a cement block built lily garden and they are very happy .
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Re: Pacu with Koi ?
Red Belly Pacu belong to the Piranha family if I remember correctly. We had a few, one was around 2+ feet long. I can attest that they are meat eaters. My wife use to hand feed large dog food to the big one until it took a chunk of her finger nail off with a little bit of meat.
They eat gold fish. I had ours co-existing with our other cichlids but it was really funny when I first put him in our african tank.....Pacu on one end and everything else at the opposite end.
Pacu are aggressive and from personal experience can only be kept with fish of equal temperment like oscars and red devils and midas....etc.
RaulRaul
PokerFace
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Re: Pacu with Koi ?
From Wikipedia:
"Pacu are commonly sold as 'Vegetarian Piranhas' to home aquarium owners. With the proper equipment and commitment, pacu have been known to make responsive pets. One such example was Swish, a 30-inch pacu owned for over 20 years by a Seattle restaurant; one aquarium technician said of Swish, "He'd rub his body on your arms, kind of like a dog."[5]
However, the fish are a poor choice for the typical hobbyist. While they are not aggressive carnivores like the piranha, their crushing jaw system, used primarily for eating seeds and nuts, can be hazardous. One toddler needed surgery after a pacu (misreported as a piranha) bit her finger at Edinburgh Butterfly and Insect World in Scotland. Commenting on the incident, Deep Sea World zoological manager Matthew Kane warned, "Pacus will eat anything, even children’s wiggling fingers."[6]
Additionally, profit-driven pet stores which ignore long-term fish welfare, sell pacus as small as 2-3 inches long and neglect to warn customers that fish growth is not inhibited by tank size, contrary to popular fish lore.[4] "Most UK dealers now refuse to stock this species due to the large size and expensive aquarium requirements it demands," according to Practical Fishkeeping magazine's Matt Clarke.[7] Indeed, pacu should be raised in very large aquaria: They can grow an inch per month initially and in some cases double in size every month for the first year. They can quickly grow over 30 inches long and need enough space to live healthily.[8] Overwhelmed hobbyists are suspected of illegally releasing their pacu into wild waterways."
I guess we all have different experiences with them. My experiences have always been good. But you have to think that they're REALLY big fish. And yes, they will eat anything."Millennium hand and shrimp!"
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