Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

After having had a look on the Fishbase website and in my books, I've found these parameters:
low hardness waters <2°dH
low pH waters: 4,3-6,5
EC ~ 30 µS/cm
No nitrate and high filtration on peat for spawning
Most of the time in Essequibo river: Temp: 28-30°C, lightly salted water in the estuarian zone, the breeding rivers seem to be cooler around 24-26°C
they live in the Essequibo River bassin, north guyana, surinam
they like high current
they are gregarious fish
they eat what falls in the river, Adults feed essentially on Podostemaceae (Lacis), more rarely on seeds (Caladium), young can eat live insects and plankton
they go upstream during the raining season to breed and are sustrate egg scatterers in small lightly coloured acidic rivers with sand bottoms, shaded rivers with high speed current in the middle (around 0,5 m/s) and muddy banks with plants growing
they are very prolific, the eggs are 1-2 mm in diameter
They breed in floating plants in couples but in a spawning zone for schools
they need a lot of space for breeding in aquarium
the eggs incubate for at least 3 days at 26°C on the bottom in the sand
the larvae feed on day 5 with microplankton: infusoria and phytoplankton, then zooplankton: cyclops, newly hatched artemia

These are fish that live in the same river basin: Apistogramma ortmanni, Apistogramma rupunni, Apistogramma steindachneri and Nannacara anomala. That could help having more details on the ecology and year temperature pattern.

All these infos have to be reorganised since they are in the order that I found them, i'll look after that later.

I have found that there are two Pacus, one is frugivore (Myleus pacu or Pacu) and the other one is omnivore (Colossoma macropomum or Blackfin pacu in USA). Which one where you looking at ?
Here's the fishbase link for Pacu: http://fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSumm ... sname=pacu, is it this you are talking of.

Anyway i have sent an email to the director of the research center in french guyana and they study the two of them and even a very impressive potential aquaculture fish: Arapaima gigas, grows up to 5 kg in 4 months and 15 kg in a year. I'll tell you what i get back from him. I've read a report he did, they say in it that they have to induce spawning with hormones. That would be why they can spawn them all year long. It would be interesting to know the dosing and the frequency of the injections.

If you've got infos that are not here, please note them down too.
I hope this helps sorry it is a bit messy

I've found a document here on Pacu, i'll try to get a link to it when i've found it.

I haven't had a reply from the research center, i'll try to get back to them, i won't post their document as it is in french and won't be very usefull for all of you english speaking people.

The other thread on Pacu on BYAP forum is
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... php?t=3091
The document previously talked about is there.
Good reading

Thanks for the links and info. I was just looking for some general info since I knew little/nothing about them before. The pH kinda rules them out for me but the info could be useful to others. There may be some people out there having trouble keeping their pH high that might be interested

They would be used to higher pH without trouble, there are some of them in rivers in Florida
Here link to study
http://www.stetson.edu/artsci/biology/c ... lorida.htm

Pacus' teeth scare me and catfishes' spines scare me:

http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profile ... /pacu4.jpg

I have had pacu in 7-8 pH no prob.
Most aquarium stores in the US have them.

jdphish,
How safe would it be to eat a fish raised as an aquarium fish? I know most Aquarium fish treatments are not really meant for food fish.

I wouldn't eat anything done for aquarium trade, and if i had the choice i wouldn't eat any fish from fish farms. I've worked in the two businesses and they are not clean.
The worst is aquarium trade because most chemicals that work for "cleaning" fish are used when they are not allowed for fish farming.
Still the same endless question that is where does it come from.
If it is bred in south US, grown in natural pond and sent straight to shop, it should be allright.
If it has been bred in Southeast Asia, sent to Singapour, stocked for weeks wthout food and lots of chemicals, sold to exporter and retreated, sent to US wholesaler and retreated, then sent to local wholesaler and retreated then sent to shop and treated and not fed, first of all don't eat it and don't buy it either. Most of the fish go this way even if Florida produces masses of exotic fish.

At least I know very well where my catfish came from.

I've found lots of stuff on channel cats but it is a bit late to post tonight, i'll get back to it tomorrow. You should find it interesting.

Hmmmm. I didn't say you should eat aquarium fish. You could grow them though. Eating is up to you.

Hey people eat fish from China and Vietnam everyday that use aquarium trade chemicals-nitrofurazone, malachite green. Great stuff to treat fish, just not good for human health. U. S. Farm raised catfish are the safest fish available.

What water temps can they live in?

I agree with you jdphish for this, Europe follows US regulations on fish farming chemical use (with only 10 years of delay). And the chemicals clean the fish all right but it shortens their life pretty well too, even if in fish farming the fish usually don't have a chance of going to it. I've seen escaped farmed fish die of kidney destruction because of the fish food quality.

By the way, how many fish do you have on the farm you work at or own?

Meancoyote- I am not a huge fan of Wiki but here is some info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacu_(fish)
They are "tropical" fish and the lower limit of temp seems to be 50-60 degrees F.



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Amacafish, thats fascinating. What was the specific ingredient that caused the kidney failure and what species was that. How do you capture an escaped farmed fish? Or was there some sort of die off of the escapees?

I have had feed trained largemouth bass die of liver failure. Seems the fat content in the feed basically causes liver failure. For some reason fat accumulates in the liver. Some reasearch is presently being conducted on this isssue.

The numbers of fish vary quite alot by season after spring spawning season I have alot more. After fish are delivered in the fall I have fewer.
Usually between 1 and 10 at any given time.