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.

Did you know

The sheep pacu gets its name from its short, blunt-toothed face, which looks oddly sheep-like for a cousin of the piranha. Its teeth are made for grazing plants, yet in the aquarium it will sometimes turn to an odder meal and nibble the scales off larger, slower tankmates.

Related species

• 

  Spotted silver dollar

  Metynnis lippincottianus

  5.5 in (14 cm)53 gal (200 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)

• 

  Wimple piranha

  Catoprion mento

  5.9 in (15 cm)53 gal (200 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
• Spotted metynnis

  Metynnis maculatus

  7.1 in (18 cm)92 gal (350 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

• 

  Redhook

  Myloplus rubripinnis

  9.8 in (25 cm)70 gal (265 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)

• 

  Red-bellied pacu

  Piaractus brachypomus

  34.6 in (88 cm)1,057 gal (4,000 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

• 

  Black Pacu

  Colossoma macropomum

  39.4 in (100 cm)660 gal (2,500 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)