How many of you have seen what you thought was a piranha in your fish store? A lot of the time you're probably looking at a fish called the pacu which is actually a member of piranha family which is why it looks like one. There are several species of pacu including Black, and red bellied. All of them can get very big indeed, a lot of them can actually reach a maximum size of 3 feet. They are not guaranteed to reach this size in the home aquarium but they will still get extremely big. So, are they really suitable for the home aquarium? Well, if you can provide them with a suitable tank then there is no problem with keeping them. However, the majority of people just don't have the space, money or time to house one of these large tanks so really, a pacu is not suitable for the average home aquarium. They are obviously very small as juveniles which is why people buy them not realising how big they will get. Below are a couple of photos which show you just what these fish are like as adults

pacu should not be kept in pet stores as they get waaaaaay to big. they can grow over an inch a month and weigh over 40lbs.So they need at least 500 gallons each. Also they are a schooling fish so need to be kept in groups of 3 or more so that is 1500 gallons of fish. they also are known as tank busters as they are skiddish and are really powerful they can break your tank

Nice to have you on board. Yes, I totally agree, there are a lots of totally irresponsible fish stores around. Even the ones around here which I won't mention sell ridiculous fish to the general public.. Just the other day they had a tiny stingray. Even though stingrays don't grow to the size of the ones in the sea, these freshwater species still get to the size where you need a sensible tank. No notices on the front telling the general public anything about them. Makes me really angry. They even had one arrowana. It was about 5 inches long. Once again, they would have just sold it to anyone because they were asking a lot of money for it. Problem is, they don't really care, they just want to make money and I suppose if they told everyone what was really necessary, they wouldn't sell as many fish

wow, my fish store isnt as crazy but they have tried to make me feel sorry for a disabled oscar and tried to sell it to me for a discounted price of "80" dollars where i bought my oscars from a market for 8 bucks each, this oscar couldnt eat or swim and u has too hand feed it

theres always the silver dollar (metynnis argenteus) they look alot like a pacu but only grow to about10 to 15cm they are really placid,you can put them in with neons to oscars their a good all round fish , im not sure if their sold here in austraila;) if they are ive never seen one!

poor oscar id buy it

Bella wrote:


For $80? I believe that is around £40. The Oscar would have to be around 12 inches over here for at a cost that much and it would definitely have to be in good health. Having said that, I would have given it a home if I had the space, poor little thing