Piranah or Pacu?

A

amerpatrt

Fresno, CA
Sep 8, 2004
43
0
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63
Fresno, CA
www.smithdobermans.com
I purchased a 'pacu' from WMart right around New Year's day. He grew by leaps and bounds in just these few weeks- something that you guys have described as normal for a pacu. But since I noticed a full set of choppers (teeth), and the recent disappearance of a CAE, I started to think he might be a piranah, so I did an internet search on red belly piranah and my 'pacu' looks just like the red belly piranah in the pictures. Is there a close relation of the Pacu to the piranah? Are they almost identical in phenotype? Please help-my husband swears that he knew all along that this was a piranah, not a pacu. :eek:
 
They look very similar and are sometimes misold. Look on google for some picutres or post a pic of your fish. There isn't much we can say without a pic.

Generally, the body of a pacu is slightly different than piranha. Also, pacu don't have teeth. They are vegetarians mostly.
 
its a pacu. and will get huge, too bad they are pretty wussy. still very impressive though especially when they get around 2 feet the ones bigger than that are just monsters.
 
i actually just took back 2 pacus i bought from my LFS yesterday, they look identical to the piranah, the pacu is actually the piranahs cousin, i have read about this stuff. theyre basically the same fish, except the pacu is vegetarian. If you post a pic, i and or we could tell you what it is. try to post a pic and ill get back to you.
 
adgolde said:
except the pacu is vegetarian. QUOTE]


Actually, they are omnivorous. Our Pacus eat anything from beef heart to watermelon to Milk Bones.... :)
Click to expand...
 
Yes Pacus are basically a big omnivorous Piranha. They both belong to the same family. What you have got is probably a Pacu.

Mojos Pacu is wicked!
 
the one difference between the various piranhas and the less carnivorus species is the size of the gill plates. the pacus and other omnivores have a gill cover that is about the width of thier eye out from the edge of the eye.

but the piranhas have a much wider gill cover comparied to the size of thier eyes.

the omnivores don't need large gills to chase down fruit and such.
 
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