Update after 1.5 years.
They keep growing:
They keep growing:
Our 7+1 pacu
- Thread starter thebiggerthebetter
- Start date
Special thanks you to PacuMom for teaching me on the pacu IDs...
We've lost our only pacu that we bought 5 years ago (the rest current 6 are rescues). Final measures - 32 inches long, 12 inches tall (without fins), around 30 pounds.
Strange case. It became paralyzed from pectoral fins down a week ago. Never sick, never sulking. Always on the go and a bottomless pit at feeding times. My strawman hypothesis is that it got poked with a mullet spine inside its mouth or somewhere deeper. The day or two before, the pacu gang stole a piece or two of a 2-foot mullet that was meant for the catfish. They do it sometimes, despite being well fed on their own feed. They proceeded, as usual, to tear it apart like their infamous cousins Serrasalmus piranha. Mullets have sizeable spines in the pectoral, dosal, and anal fins. I don't bother snipping them off when feeding catfish because the cats know how to handle them...
We had a case or two before like that or very reminiscent of that but not with pacu, it was with silver arowana but the arowana became paralyzed or lost the ability to swim and hold themselves upright immediately upon grabbing a piece of spiny fish. It was obvious they got poked badly (I have been snipping the spines off for arowana ever since). These arowana were separated and recovered fully and well though...
In sum, I truly can't think of anything else. Worms in brain / nervous system is too far fetched and I have never seen any symptoms of this before in this or any other pacu (have had a hundred over the last decade). I dissected the pacu. Looked healthy and nice inside. The pacu was chuck full of eggs, probably about 3-5 pounds of eggs. Pacu eggs are grey-greenish-bluish in color and very small in size. So it was a female and about to spawn. Being gravid with eggs places an additional enormous stress on a female fish body, which exacerbates any other problems. So being gravid didn't help for sure.
We've lost our only pacu that we bought 5 years ago (the rest current 6 are rescues). Final measures - 32 inches long, 12 inches tall (without fins), around 30 pounds.
Strange case. It became paralyzed from pectoral fins down a week ago. Never sick, never sulking. Always on the go and a bottomless pit at feeding times. My strawman hypothesis is that it got poked with a mullet spine inside its mouth or somewhere deeper. The day or two before, the pacu gang stole a piece or two of a 2-foot mullet that was meant for the catfish. They do it sometimes, despite being well fed on their own feed. They proceeded, as usual, to tear it apart like their infamous cousins Serrasalmus piranha. Mullets have sizeable spines in the pectoral, dosal, and anal fins. I don't bother snipping them off when feeding catfish because the cats know how to handle them...
We had a case or two before like that or very reminiscent of that but not with pacu, it was with silver arowana but the arowana became paralyzed or lost the ability to swim and hold themselves upright immediately upon grabbing a piece of spiny fish. It was obvious they got poked badly (I have been snipping the spines off for arowana ever since). These arowana were separated and recovered fully and well though...
In sum, I truly can't think of anything else. Worms in brain / nervous system is too far fetched and I have never seen any symptoms of this before in this or any other pacu (have had a hundred over the last decade). I dissected the pacu. Looked healthy and nice inside. The pacu was chuck full of eggs, probably about 3-5 pounds of eggs. Pacu eggs are grey-greenish-bluish in color and very small in size. So it was a female and about to spawn. Being gravid with eggs places an additional enormous stress on a female fish body, which exacerbates any other problems. So being gravid didn't help for sure.
A couple more pics and a different explanation of the death...
I remembered that when this albino pacu was around 1'-1.5' (about 5-6 years ago), I exposed it to Trichlorfon I used to treat our 4500 gal tanks against fish lice.
Trichlorfon is an organophosphate insecticide (Dimethyl 2,2,2-trichloro-1-hydroxyethylphosphonate) aka Dipterex, Masoten, Metrifonate, Dylox, and Negavon. https://www.koinet.net/j/index.php/19-home/112-trichlorfon.html
..."It is very effective against various flukes (both gill and body fluke), fish lice, anchor worm, Ergasilus, also Cestoda (tape worms), Hirudinea (leeches) and snails. In short, most insects will be killed.
Good thing is it degrades quite quickly in water. Bad thing is it will cause disorientation and nervous disorder if used incorrectly.
Typical symptoms of overdosing in koi is a bent spine and nervous, wip-like swimming. The fish may recover over a period of a year or two, but no guarantee..."
Back then I learned that pacu are EXTREMELY sensitive to this chemical (tested it 2-3 times) even at doses way below recommended for medicating fish. This particular pacu went belly up almost instantly and in a coma for some time but then recovered in fresh water, which couldn't be said for its 6 kin, who never came back.
Anyhow, seeing how in koi too a neurological damage is observed... I wonder if that pacu brain or nervous system was damaged enough and although the pacu came to it and then lasted another 5-6 years, it has been doomed since that bad occurrence.
At least this explanation has some logic to it, even if wrong.
I remembered that when this albino pacu was around 1'-1.5' (about 5-6 years ago), I exposed it to Trichlorfon I used to treat our 4500 gal tanks against fish lice.
Trichlorfon is an organophosphate insecticide (Dimethyl 2,2,2-trichloro-1-hydroxyethylphosphonate) aka Dipterex, Masoten, Metrifonate, Dylox, and Negavon. https://www.koinet.net/j/index.php/19-home/112-trichlorfon.html
..."It is very effective against various flukes (both gill and body fluke), fish lice, anchor worm, Ergasilus, also Cestoda (tape worms), Hirudinea (leeches) and snails. In short, most insects will be killed.
Good thing is it degrades quite quickly in water. Bad thing is it will cause disorientation and nervous disorder if used incorrectly.
Typical symptoms of overdosing in koi is a bent spine and nervous, wip-like swimming. The fish may recover over a period of a year or two, but no guarantee..."
Back then I learned that pacu are EXTREMELY sensitive to this chemical (tested it 2-3 times) even at doses way below recommended for medicating fish. This particular pacu went belly up almost instantly and in a coma for some time but then recovered in fresh water, which couldn't be said for its 6 kin, who never came back.
Anyhow, seeing how in koi too a neurological damage is observed... I wonder if that pacu brain or nervous system was damaged enough and although the pacu came to it and then lasted another 5-6 years, it has been doomed since that bad occurrence.
At least this explanation has some logic to it, even if wrong.
Picked up an about 18" pacu rescue from Sarasota. It grew up in a 3400 gal outdoor koi pond from a tiny baby in 1.5 years and was getting more and more brazzen, hogging feed, biting and harassing koi, etc.
Pacu have been doing well in 4500 gal, one red-belly/ hybrid is especially large.
5:50-9:30 min:
Five 8"-ers we also took in:
Once they grew to 12" in the jerk tank, they lost a lot of agility and couldn't cope with the Malawi labs incessant attacks, got stressed and then attacked by the behri and purple labeo and we lost two of them, three others survived and were rehomed into their own 240 gal for now.
5:50-9:30 min:
Five 8"-ers we also took in:
Once they grew to 12" in the jerk tank, they lost a lot of agility and couldn't cope with the Malawi labs incessant attacks, got stressed and then attacked by the behri and purple labeo and we lost two of them, three others survived and were rehomed into their own 240 gal for now.
Underwater closeups of our biggest pacu, about 40-50 lbs, 8:05-8:55 min:
One of the true black pacu has gone to Roderigo at PredatoryFins and from there to one of his customers. It was heavy! Probably 40 lbs.
The smaller trio (survivors from 5) in 240 gal keeps growing, about 14"-16" now. Almost no red is left, only on fins a bit.
The smaller trio (survivors from 5) in 240 gal keeps growing, about 14"-16" now. Almost no red is left, only on fins a bit.
