Proper feeding and care of a Black Pacu

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BobDinosaur

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 8, 2014
34
0
6
Ohio
New job has an aquarium with only a Black Pacu in it, fish size is around 13" and the tank itself is 110-120 gallons depending on how I measure it. Filter is a Cascade 700 with a flow rate of 185 gal/h and in need of a media replacement, air supply is sufficient for the tank size, temperature is around 68-70 F.

What I am looking for is some help in making sure this guy gets a decently clean tank with the available equipment
and receives a decent diet. Will be performing a 10% water change and a partial filter media swap later today, looking
at tubing to see if I have anything to clean out the gravel with. Fish is decently liked by this company, but they do not
know much about keeping him, so anything you can provide will be helpful.
 
The fish is an omnivore but a lot of people will say herbivore. They can get to 3ft in length and weigh 60lbs with proper care or in the wild. Prefer soft and slightly acidic water. Can live for 20 plus years. Need a future tank of 650 to 1000g to properly house. 30-50% water change a week preferred. By the way is it a real true black pacu? I haven't too many true ones available. Good luck. Let's see some pics.


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Can feed it flakes,pellets, to frozen silversides...etc. Not picky at all.


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BobDinosaur said:
New job has an aquarium with only a Black Pacu in it, fish size is around 13" and the tank itself is 110-120 gallons depending on how I measure it. Filter is a Cascade 700 with a flow rate of 185 gal/h and in need of a media replacement, air supply is sufficient for the tank size, temperature is around 68-70 F.

What I am looking for is some help in making sure this guy gets a decently clean tank with the available equipment
and receives a decent diet. Will be performing a 10% water change and a partial filter media swap later today, looking
at tubing to see if I have anything to clean out the gravel with. Fish is decently liked by this company, but they do not
know much about keeping him, so anything you can provide will be helpful.
Click to expand...


Maintaining excellent water parameters will be difficult in that small tank. You need a fresh water test kit such as API. http://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwate...r=8-1&keywords=api+freshwater+master+test+kit

Keeping nitrates below 20 ppm should be the goal. It will probably take frequent massive water changes to keep the nitrates at 20 ppm or below. Pacu are long lived fish (30+ years) under the right conditions. In small tanks, they live about 2 years and then can die suddenly. I believe poor water parameters are the cause of pacu dying prematurely. Hopefully, you found a gravel vac among the equipment.

Can you just rinse the media off in the tank water that was removed? The crud/crap needs to be removed, but the beneficial bacteria in the media is what keeps the tank cycled.
 
pacu mom said:
Maintaining excellent water parameters will be difficult in that small tank. You need a fresh water test kit such as API. http://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwate...r=8-1&keywords=api+freshwater+master+test+kit

Keeping nitrates below 20 ppm should be the goal. It will probably take frequent massive water changes to keep the nitrates at 20 ppm or below. Pacu are long lived fish (30+ years) under the right conditions. In small tanks, they live about 2 years and then can die suddenly. I believe poor water parameters are the cause of pacu dying prematurely. Hopefully, you found a gravel vac among the equipment.

Can you just rinse the media off in the tank water that was removed? The crud/crap needs to be removed, but the beneficial bacteria in the media is what keeps the tank cycled.
Click to expand...

Gravel vac yes, but the tubing I currently have is too thin to run it. Looks like the tubing is just enough to get water into the tank and suck it out slowly. Have some test gear at home I might borrow to do a nitrate test (dad has a tropical tank, saltwater tank and a small outdoor pond). When you say massive water changes, how much weekly are we talking? As for food, I am informed that Bubba is fed assorted frozen veggies nightly. I just want to know what an actual balanced diet for this guy is. I am guessing he is a black pacu, no red on him that I have seen or iridescent scales. Google tells me that red/black hybrids exist, any way to determine a hybrid from a pure black pacu? Also we believe he is at least 5 years old, or at least 5 years in that tank.
 
BobDinosaur said:
Gravel vac yes, but the tubing I currently have is too thin to run it. Looks like the tubing is just enough to get water into the tank and suck it out slowly. Have some test gear at home I might borrow to do a nitrate test (dad has a tropical tank, saltwater tank and a small outdoor pond). When you say massive water changes, how much weekly are we talking? As for food, I am informed that Bubba is fed assorted frozen veggies nightly. I just want to know what an actual balanced diet for this guy is. I am guessing he is a black pacu, no red on him that I have seen or iridescent scales. Google tells me that red/black hybrids exist, any way to determine a hybrid from a pure black pacu? Also we believe he is at least 5 years old, or at least 5 years in that tank.
Click to expand...

If he is 5 years old and only 13", he is absolutely stunted... most likely due to high nitrates. It is imperative to know the nitrate level in the tank. Keep in mind, that nitrates are the end product of the nitrification process. Once you know the nitrate level in the tank, change out enough water to get the level to less than 20 ppm. Aim for less than 20 ppm, because the nitrates will climb quickly. How frequent and how much water you change out should depend on the nitrate level. In my 300 gallon tank, it takes two 50% water changes to get nitrates down to a satisfactory level. The smaller the tank, the more quickly nitrates will rise. If there are really high nitrates in the tank, change out about 30-50% every day until the nitrates are reduced. There is a condition known as old tank syndrome, where the poor fish are used to the high nitrates that are hurting them. So in the case of very high nitrates, reduce the nitrates over a few days rather than trying to get the nitrates low on the first day.

Most likely, you have a red belly pacu. Red bellies lose their red color as they get older. Red bellies have a very rotund look.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...er-Mega-Tank&p=4915722&viewfull=1#post4915722

Black pacus are not as commonly found as red bellies. The blacks have an elongated appearance.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?141004-pacu-lovers-only-house-of-sam
 
Going to give Bubba a 15% water change and a filter cleaning (no media replacement) for the weekend while I work on getting a test kit and more dechlor. Possibly stupid question, does this forum have an edit post feature? Also being a new ghost shrimp is sweet, hope I am one of the cherry ones.
 
He's a red belly pacu. Good call on removing the driftwood. You can edit only for about five minutes after posting.
 
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