# Had A Pacu hooked in Neighborhood lake



## tinknocker30 (Aug 27, 2006)

Anybody that gets bored of there fish and thinks about releasing them, sell them to a shop for whatever, but do not release them in lakes that will freeze over. Last week I was catching sunnies while trying to get a small one for the larger bass that move in around 7-7:30 pm at haddon lake in NJ. I noticed a fish around 10-12 swimming into the shallows looking for food, looked like a RBP to me at first but I noticed instantly that it was a PACU, a vegatarian. So anyways, I got a 3lb bass on a 3" sunfish, released it and the sunfish I threw back as it had a very dead appearance to it after 20 minutes. Sure enough the PACU started hitting it. I caught another sunfish around 3" but this time ripped a piece of stomach off of it and placed it on the hook. Sure enough before dark he came back in and took it, had him hooked on my kids spiderman rod as he was with me, but because the rod didn't have enough backbone to it, he eventually got off. My question is, these fish are suppose to be vegatarians, why did it take the bluegill fillet, or was my ID wrong, was it a piranha, I determined the ID by the Back tail, way too long and fanny to be a RBP. I will eventually get this fish, going to give him sometime to come back, I'll post a pic if I do.


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## taylorhedrich (Mar 2, 2005)

It's sad that fishkeepers release unwanted fish in the wild.

To be honest pacu are pretty much garbage disposals-they will eat pretty much anything. Especially one that was dumped in the wild and probably didn't have much of anything else to eat.
~Taylor~


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## Malok (Mar 26, 2006)

i think alot of fish are like that they just eat damn near anything available u could probally catch a p using an acorn or something in the dry season(i heard on this site sometimes they eat nuts) remind me not to go skinny dipping in the amazon please

i think alot of fish are like that they just eat damn near anything available u could probally catch a p using an acorn or something in the dry season(i heard on this site sometimes they eat nuts) remind me not to go skinny dipping in the amazon please


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## armac (Nov 28, 2002)

Pacus are not vegetarians, they eat whatever is around :nod:


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## JBouchard1087 (Aug 8, 2005)

Isnt it illegal to dump a piranha into a lake.


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## Malok (Mar 26, 2006)

i would say yes and if not than that and the person doing it are just incredibly stupid


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## Tinkerbelle (Oct 14, 2004)

JBouchard1087 said:


> Isnt it illegal to dump a piranha into a lake.


yes its illegal... pacu are not piranha (related though), and are also illegal to dump in lakes.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)




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## oOMPHOo (Aug 21, 2006)

I happened to browse the local Wal Mart's fish selection last night, and they were selling juvenile Red Belly Pacu's. They had 7 of them and they were 1" - 1.5" each. The description card did not mention that the fish will reach VERY large size. It's sad that they will sell these fish to people that have no clue what they are getting. Put 5 of them in a 10 gallon tank, and let them go when they outgrow it. =(


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## piranhadaddy (Nov 22, 2005)

its irresponsible for LPS to sell pacu without having a giant warning sign on them.

i bet pacu are much more likely to get dumped into a local lake than a P due to their size


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## ChilDawg (Apr 30, 2006)

(Old thread...heh.)

Honestly, it's price as well...Pacus are a lot cheaper, so it's a lot easier for someone to justify releasing one.


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

taylorhedrich said:


> i think alot of fish are like that they just eat damn near anything available u could probally catch a p using an acorn or something in the dry season(i heard on this site sometimes they eat nuts) remind me not to go skinny dipping in the amazon please
> 
> i think alot of fish are like that they just eat damn near anything available u could probally catch a p using an acorn or something in the dry season(i heard on this site sometimes they eat nuts) remind me not to go skinny dipping in the amazon please


My P was eating sunflower seeds the other day.


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