Identify Red Bellied Pacu from a Red Bellied Piranha

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HiGhTiMeZ

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for future Reference, I've gathered some pics and infos to easily identify a RBPacu (Colossoma macropomum) from a RBPiranha (Pygocentrus nattereri).

1st pic: Head and jaw of a Red bellied PIRANHA
2nd pic: Head and jaw of a Red bellied PACU

note their difference from the head and the jaw.


LNatHS2.jpg

pachead2.jpg
 
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dovii88

dovii88

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awesome should def be asticky
 
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HiGhTiMeZ

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next pics is a comparison of a juvenile piranha from a pacu

left pic: Piranha
right pic : Pacu

maybe hard to differentiate the 2 from an untrained eye with both having almost the same color and shape...
but if ull look closely on their jaw u will the a big difference how they open their mouth.

Pira_PacuCom2.jpg
 
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HiGhTiMeZ

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next pic is a nice whole shot of a sub adult of both species.

notice the big difference in size from the pacu and they can still get bigger while the piranha max out @ 10-12inches at the most.

U will easily see the difference on their jaws.

pacu_and_piranha2.jpg
 
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HiGhTiMeZ

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next pics....
LETS SEE THEIR TEETH!!!

1st pic: The Piranha Teeth
2nd pic: The Pacu Teeth

Note that razor sharp Piranha teeth is triangular-shape used for slashing, tearing and ripping meats while the pacu teeth is rounded squared-shape almost like human teeth used for grinding and pounding vegetable matter fruits and even nuts.

Pira_Jaw_teeth2.jpg

pacuteeth092706_0042.jpg
 
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Red Devil

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wow great comparison..it sure is a good thing the pacu are gentle giants because their teeth look alot more intense then the piranha.. wow I never knew the pacu had double row of teeth to eat veggies... no wonder they like chewing so much.. :nilly:
 
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HiGhTiMeZ

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now ill end this thread with an image of their anatomy...

Note that i made this thread from borrowed images from the net but with my own words so if theres any corrections that needs to be made pls let me know.

I hope this thread simple enough for novice fish keepers to know the difference from a Red Bellied Piranha from a Red Bellied Pacu.

piranha_parts_en copy.jpg
 
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