Red Belly Pacu

[fishbguy]

lmao...rehbilitating for relase back intot eh wild. That's bull.

A zoo that actually takes in pets from people, pets that have never been in the wild before, have no idea how to actually 'hunt', and then can afford to take them to where ever they come from and release them.

Yeah...Sure.

[emc7]

You could always eat it. Prob. tastes like tilapia.

[frogman5]

lol prolly does

[Albino_101]

why has this evolved into such a big arguement, I just was asking origanally that I had a pacu and was asking if it need any special care, other than a huge tank.

[frogman5]

well im just telling you to give it back cause apparently you have no idea wat to do about it

[emc7]

I just bought a small red belly pacu

that's why. It a pet peeve of many of us that stores sell fish like this at all. I think you should need a special "monsterfishkeeper" license to special order pacu, iridescent sharks and common goldfish.

[frogman5]

Originally Posted by emc7

that's why. It a pet peeve of many of us that stores sell fish like this at all. I think you should need a special "monsterfishkeeper" license to special order pacu, iridescent sharks and common goldfish.

i agree emc

[Albino_101]

a license for goldfish? pretty extreme, carnivals give em out as prizes.

[frogman5]

yeh thats not the point they get huge just like ur pacu but apparently a guy will take it rehabilitate and put it back in the amazon

am i right

[emc7]

Yea, talk about an anti-prize. Something that costs the giver 10 cents and the reciever a couple thousand dollars to dig a pond.

[frogman5]

yep exactly

[justintrask]

True Life - I once owned a red-bellied pacu.

Had him in my 75G. I thought Oh he's cute and only the size of a quarter!

Well about 2 months and a bunch of zuccini, peas, grapes, and an occasional earthworm later, he outgrew the 75. Literally, 2 months, and he was outgrown. Luckily I took him to a LFS who I knew just recently sold a huge pacu to a researcher from the new england aquarium gave me store credit for him, but I got lucky because I had a very good relationship with the owner.

Take it back, or you'll be eating Pacu in no time at all. I didn't listen to the same advice that the same people are giving you, and I regretted it.

[Buggy]

The point is Albino, it's irresponsible to get a fish for your own pleasure (you said you wanted to watch it grow up) knowing before hand that you won't be able to keep it and then expecting someone else to take your mistake. That would be like getting a Saint Bernard puppy because it's cute expecting to give it to the humane society when it grows up because you live in the city in a two room apartment. Something else you need to concider...the fish may not ever get "too big" for the tank you have because it will stunt and stop growing before it reaches it's potential adult size. That is probably why you saw the 18", six yr old pacu. Had it been kept in a proper environment it would have grown much bigger and lived a lot longer.
And the point emc7 was making about the gold fish is that NO ONE should be allowed to sell fish that get that big to the general public because it does cause problems like this. Carnivals giving them as prizes is just as irresponsible as selling them in petstores.
I'm not trying to bash you on this, I made the same mistake myself but I didn't know my fish would grow to be a monster when I got him. Had I known I would never have bought him. As a result, my chinese hi fin shark, that I had for two years, became stunted and stopped growing at around 10"...thats two feet short of what he was supposed to reach, and last week I lost him. I tried to give him to zoos and public aquariums but even though he is endangered and a novelty fish, no one wanted him. I kept him as long as I could and did the best I could for him but he died anyway. Is that really what you want to happen to your Pacu?
Giving him back to where ever you got him from may not be the best answer as they will just turn around and sell him to someone else that can't properly house him, but at least it will free you from the headache and hassle of trying to rehome him later when he gets so big no one will want him.
Some folks tend to be a bit abrupt and rude with their answers and explanations but most are truely just trying to help you avoid a bad situation and by ignoring their advice and arguing with them you are only showing that you don't really care about properly keeping fish....and that is a big no no around here where a lot of people make fish keeping their life.

[Albino_101]

the 18 inch pacu i told you about has been in the same 1000 gallon tank his whole life and is still living, he is 6 years old right now.

[Fishfirst]

also you are around the approximate time for kidney failure in your puffers. Freshwater just isn't suitable and its been documented time and time again.

[lohachata]

lets look at this in a more real world light.
humans have been capturing and keeping wild animals for thousands of years.even longer.it is not going to stop.to completely stop the sale and possession of creatures that we cannot properly maintain in a manner compliant with their original natural habitat;then none of us would have any kind of pets at all.all of the zoos would have to shut down as well as all public and privately run aquariums.
another point that was made..almost all creatures that have been kept and bred in captivity can not be reintroduced into nature.there are a number of species of african cichlids that are extinct or nearly extinct that are all over the place in our tanks.one would think that we could gather up tens of thousands of them and put them back in nature.first off...we don't,can't and/or won't feed them what they would eat in the wild.then comes the inability or unwillingness to provide them in the proper environment.and then..................there are diseases and parasites in nature that fish deal with on a daily basis.but when they are in our tanks,they become disease free.and being so for so many generations,they have lost the ability to tolerate them.
personally i really don't care what people put in their tanks.if you want to put that 2 foot shovelnose cat in your 20 long;go right ahead..your money your fish..and you are the one that has to deal with the consequences of your actions.one of the aquarium biologists for the cleveland zoo in a member of our club.he and his wife and some co-workers went to south america a few years ago.he brought back some amazing pictures.especially the ones of the marketplace..24 inch tigrinnis cats gutted and laid out for shoppers.fish that we pay large sums of money for,they will have for dinner tonight.
this is how things are.we can hide behind our ideals as much as we wish;but we cannot escape the real world.there are more different cultures than we can count.some are most certainly going to seem outrageously extreme to many of us...but do we really have the right to demand that they change to conform to what we believe..i should hope not.
i believe in the old adage of "live and let live".......
so,if you can live with the consequences of your actions then who am i to judge.
albino....if you can deal with the long term results of keeping the red bellied pacu;then you go ahead and keep him.they are a very cool fish;but they just get too big for the normal home aquarium....but................................... ...................if you can eventually provide him with a tank of about 4' x 8' x 4';he could actually reach his full size..but then again;did you know that they are a tetra and like to school???...now wouldn't that be a sight.
as far as feeder fish..buy them in quantity and quarantine them in a treated tank.then feed them.

[Albino_101]

Im not disagreeing with you lohachata, I just wanted to take care of a pacu which I already knew of a place to give it to, and watch it grow. When it gets big do you think it could live in a heated pond?

[lohachata]

of course it could.just as long as the pond is big enough and you maintain temps in the mid to upper 70's.feeding it is the easy part.
you can intentionally inhibit the growth of a fish by reducing your water changes.and you can actually get it growing again by increasing them..but i doubt that it would ever reach full potential.
but these are just opinions based on my own personal experiences and not to be construed as absolute facts.

[emc7]

I agree you can't keep people from doing what they want to do. We can't even stop people from keeping gators and tigers in apartments and they are pretty obvious. It just drives me nuts to see plecos, pacus, goldfish, etc. in wal-mart next to the 1 gallon "complete aquarium systems". If you can't trust the vendor to educate the consumer, you need to restrict the vendor. I don't know like the government butting into our lives, but how do you stop stupid or greedy people from ruining the hobby for a quick profit. Every newb who kills 10 goldfish in a week and quits is someone who could have a wonderful tank for years and bought lots more food and supplies over the long term if they'd gotten good advice in the beginning.

[frogman5]

alright this pacu that is only 18 inches and is six years is complete bull**** and its pissing me off albino u are on wrong and ur lieing