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Identify Red Bellied Pacu from a Red Bellied Piranha

H

HiGhTiMeZ

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
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
 
awesome should def be asticky
 
next pics are whole fish shot of sub adult piranha and pacu.

1st pic: Piranha
2nd Pic: Pacu

piranha.jpg

Piarac_sp_Collins2.jpg
 
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
 
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
 
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
 
now lets see a closer look of the pacu n piranha head and jaw drawin by John R. Quinn

pira_pacuhead.jpg
 
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:
 
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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