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Thread: Pacu and you

  1. #1
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    Pacu and you

    From what I've read Pacu have an excellent growth rate 18 inches (thats 45.75 cm for you blokes out there) in about 6 months. The best part is you can feed them table scraps and vegetable waste. Has anyone tried them before? I plan on trying them out in a 15' x 50" aboveground pool this summer.

  2. #2
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    Re: Pacu and you

    yes i remember some one wanting to try them, ive never heard of them before, i read a thread on them here i think, stucco maybe the one to ask

  3. #3
    Moderator badflash's Avatar
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    Re: Pacu and you

    Really boney. Not much of a market in the US.
    The best fertilizer is the farmer's shadow

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    Moderator JCO's Avatar
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    Re: Pacu and you

    Please go to your profile and put in the city and state/country where you are in case there are members close by.
    JCO
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  5. #5
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    Re: Pacu and you

    the largest black pacu i've raised reach 26" (without tail) in less then a year it was in a large display tank. it was feed tons of trout chow. i know they eat them in the amazon. they like fruit, veggies, no meat. there are several species of pacu sometimes the red bellied paco is referred too as a false piranhas. we use to get real red bellied piranhas in those shipments.

  6. #6
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    Re: Pacu and you

    the pacu i raised were black, not red bellied and in nature they are herbivorious. everything eats meat directly or indirectly because of the insects small worms and crustaceans that colonize on their main food.

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    Members Basil1's Avatar
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    Re: Pacu and you

    Fast growers, 2" a month to 12 inches then slows to about an inch a month. Produces a lot of waste. Will eat anything that fits in their mouths, including any hardware in the water and pond liners. Best feed is veggies, fruits and nuts. Mine loved carrots, romaine and anything else that fell in. Don't buy small ones from petstore, look around at shops that take in trades and in classifieds loke Craigs List. People looking to get rid of them all the time not realizing how fast they grow and the potential for destruction. Not called tank busters for no reason.
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  8. #8
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Pacu and you

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacu#Food_fish

    Theodore Roosevelt wrote of catching and eating pacu in his book Through the Brazilian Wilderness. He described them as "good-sized, deep-bodied fish," and noted, "They were delicious eating."

    Today, the Amazon river is experiencing a crisis of overfishing. Both subsistence fishers and their commercial rivals compete in netting large quantities of pacu, which bring good prices at markets in Brazil and abroad.

    Aquaculture may relieve the overfishing crisis, as well as improve food security by boosting fish supplies. Various species of pacu are increasingly being used for warm-water farm fishing around the world. Pacu are considered ideal for their tolerance of the low-oxygen water in farm ponds. They also don't require a lot of expensive protein in their diet, and can be raised year-round in warm or temperature-controlled environments.

    Research shows that the "flavor of (farmed) pacu is comparable to that of hybrid striped bass, tilapia, and rainbow trout, but superior to catfish." In South America, pacu are prized for their sweet, mild flavor. Pacu have been introduced to the Sepik River due to overfishing.

  9. #9
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Pacu and you

    FYI: You need a permit to grow these in Florida, legally.

    http://www.freshfromflorida.com/onestop/forms/15106.pdf

  10. #10
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    Re: Pacu and you

    Okay I am game. Sounds like a great tank mate to tilapia. Similar water conditions, etc. The Sepik river ones have turned into being carnivores based on an episode of River Monsters I watched. I have kept them up to about 3 inches in the ornamental tanks, but never considered eating them.
    While the big tanks/pools would work for grow out, can you spawn them? Or would it be more like the striper hybrids that you have to buy fingerlings every season? Or can you maybe handspawn them like koi and salmon? I am going to research this some, and see the feasability. TX gets cold enough you shouldn't need a permit. FL is probably requiring permits to reduce probable invasive species. Just a guess.
    At first I left this blank...but now I believe: "It's better to keep your mouth closed, and have the world think your a fool, than open it and confirm it."

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