# Need some help w id



## nero6370 (Nov 7, 2009)

Greetings all! This is my 1st post here so go easy on me! I am a member of MFK and happened to come across this website while browsing the piranha forum there. I recently bought what I thought were a type of piranha at my lfs and submitted some pics for an id. After seeing some of the pics posted on the MFK site, my original thoughts were that I had picked up some Mytinnis Maculatus. Some people said yes, others said no, some said pacu, some said rbp... I was hoping to get close as poss to an accurate id here. I took the best pics I could; they didnt exactly cooperate. I will try to get more if these prove to be not helpful enough. Thanks folks! Tom


----------



## Buckman (Jan 10, 2007)

pacu i think. the eyes are the give-away

and welcome to the site


----------



## rhomkeeper (Mar 31, 2008)

deffinatly pacus


----------



## CyberGenetics (Mar 29, 2009)

yup pacus, there a cousin of the piranha.

They get really big, I believe between 15-20" / and it looks like u have quite a few there so if u have doubts that u can house so many monster sized fish i would get rid of sum before they become a problem.


----------



## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

VinceC_69 said:


> yup pacus, there a cousin of the piranha.
> 
> They get really big, I believe *between 15-20" /* and it looks like u have quite a few there so if u have doubts that u can house so many monster sized fish i would get rid of sum before they become a problem.


24"+ isnt a problem... always labeled wrong at places like Petsmart etc, which says 10" or something like that?

And i also agree with the pacu id... The "mailbox" shaped mouth is another dead give away, and the dorsal fin...


----------



## philbert (Mar 8, 2007)

I've never heard of Mytinnis Maculatus.

but those my friend as stated are pacu.


----------



## THE BLACK PIRANHA (Dec 8, 2003)

I googled Mytinnis Maculatus and no such thing exists but what you have my freind are Pacu.


----------



## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

here is a metynnis maculatus and i agree its a pacu lol http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=11940


----------



## THE BLACK PIRANHA (Dec 8, 2003)

O K he just spelled it wrong.


----------



## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

yea after reading it i spelled it wrong too lol thats why i had to edit my post lol.


----------



## nero6370 (Nov 7, 2009)

Thanks for all the quick responses!! I am a little bummed, but I had a feeling they were not piranha. However, I am curious as to how many diff types of pacu there are. I have a pair of fairly large pacu and they look completely diff from these others, except for the mouths. My big boys are dark gray with light grey/whitish bellies. No spots or red on them at all. I have pics of them on MFK under the same screen name. I have pics of them on my desktop pc but not this laptop. I might be able to retrieve them from MFK and post them here, just to compare. Now I am determined to get some real p's!! But the other pacu will prob have to go back to the lfs; I just don't have the room in my pool/pond for 6 more soon to be monsters.


----------



## Buckman (Jan 10, 2007)

juvi pacus have the spots. like piranhas, they'll lose those spots as they hit the sub-adult/adult stages.


----------



## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

As they all said Pacus...Are you keeping them or gettign rid of them now???

They definitely are Monsters after a few years!
Just look for AKs post on his Pacu nearing 24 inch I believe...unless he has at MFK.

Welcome aboard either way.


----------



## nero6370 (Nov 7, 2009)

Yeah, I plan on bringing em back to the lfs. I just don't have the room. Per my earlier post, how many diff types of pacu are there? Besides the coloration being very diff, the dorsal fin is very diff as well...If The new guys were a diff type from my big boys, I might be able to convince the wife to let me hang on to a pair!!


----------

