Has anyone raised Pacu in their system?

[Marion Latiolais]

Hi,
  I am new to the forum and still doing research. My wife and I haven't built our system yet but are planning to start soon. My question is has anyone tried raising Pacu in their system yet ? I am a Cajun from South Louisiana and want to try something different.
                                                Thanks,
                                                 Marion "KsCajun"

[Dan Brown]

I too was considering Pacu, but I'm using a glass tank, and was warned of their propensity to break tanks. I view them as an ideal experiment, since you can feed them vegetable scraps, and the culinary reviews of Pacu are excellent. Best of luck, I look forward to hearing about your decision.

[Richard Wyman]

Pacu can get very large, an angler in Oakland Ca caught one over 12 pounds quite a few years ago. I think they would be excellent food fish.

I believe Sylvia is involved in "rescuing" Pacu that have outgrown their tanks. She has at least a couple in her tanks.

[TCLynx]

LOL, the problem with rescuing pet Pacu is the owners might make you promise not to eat their pet!
Link to Sylvia's blog post about Pacu

So it seems they could easily survive in an AP system, just gotta sort out the stocking and feeding to be sure they will support the amount of plants you want.

[Marion Latiolais]

Thanks to all who replied to my question. My intent is to raise fish for food not pets or rescue. TCLynx thanks for the link to Sylvia's blog. I have read it and most of her blogs and posts. My wife and I will be ordering her video soo. Eventually we would like to collect all the video's on Aquaponics to include all of Murray Hallams, Nelson-Pade, as well as Sylvia's. This is a great site and very knowledgable people share their expertise here. I want to thank you all for that.
KsCajun

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Hi Marion. I love pacu! They get along great with the tilapia, eat anything, and I"m told they will eventually allow you to pet them. Mine are in such a social tank environment, however, that they ignore me...but that's ok. Yes, they do grow big and as I said in my blog you can probably find people who are giving them out for free to a good home, but not to Dan because he will eat them!

[TCLynx]

I wonder how hard it would be for some one rescuing Pacu to get them to breed? Then they could provide fingerlings to those who want to eat them.