Tiger pacu

Care at a glance

Overview

The tiger pacu, also sold as the sheep pacu, is a stocky, deep-bodied characin that can be kept in a small group where there is space, or singly. It is generally calm, but it has a habit of nipping scales from larger, slow fish, so it is not a safe choice for a mixed community with big tankmates. Pair it instead with robust fish of a similar size and temperament and give it plenty of open swimming room. It leans herbivorous, so feed vegetables, algae wafers, and sinking plant-based pellets, with occasional frozen foods. A tank of at least 175 liters suits one, with more room for a group.

In the wild

Acnodon normani is native to Brazil, where it lives in the clear, fast waters of the Xingu and Tocantins-Araguaia river systems as they run through savannah country. These are warm, oxygen-rich rivers over rock and sand. Keep it at 22 to 28 C with a pH from 6.0 to 7.5 and give it strong flow and clean, well-filtered water. A layout of smooth rocks, driftwood, and a sandy bed with a good current suits it far better than a still, heavily planted tank, since it may sample soft plants.

Good to know

The tiger pacu belongs to Serrasalmidae, the family of pacus and piranhas, but it is a small, mainly plant-eating member that reaches around 13 cm. It has a rounded, sheep-like head and blunt teeth suited to grazing rather than the shearing bite of a piranha. Despite its herbivorous leaning, aquarium keepers report it will pick scales from larger fish, a trait shared by a few of its relatives. It is not known to have been bred in home aquaria, so there is no reliable spawning record for the species.

Common questions

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