Pacu fish or tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) – is one of piranha family known for its lust for blood.
But unlike its “cousins” and despite a strong and massive body, colossoma prefers plant food and belongs to herbivorous fish class.
There are a lot of different fishes with pacu name, however quite often their classification is rather confusing.
Giant pacu is an interesting, not demanding and easy in care and feed fish, which has its kind of intelligence. Sounds like an ideal aquarium fish, doesn’t it?
However, the biggest problem in care is that it grows fast to become a huge fish and rather quickly it outgrows even very spacious tanks. The problem is, that on the market the fish is quite often sold as juveniles and then mistaken for piranha.
Although these fishes really look alike, black pacu fish is less aggressive and not that predatory, since it feeds on plant food. But it doesn’t eliminate the fact that black pacu will eat any small fish in a tank without any doubt.
Black pacu is definitely not a fish for everyone.