My 75gl Fish tank

Heres my 75Gl fish tank, its a very simple tank setup, i had to remove all the ornaments because my Red Belly Pacu likes to swim fast sometimes and makes a hole mess in the tank , im planning on adding some small fake plants so he cant destroy it, any suggestions??


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Yes that is a simple tank! He is a big boy! I have some fake plants laying around here somewhere that I don't plan on using.......

Nice tank and Pacu!!!

wow. he is a monster. cool stuff.

Nice looking Pacu. How long is he? He looks about the size of our two. I would also suggest placing something vertical and relatively heavy in front of your heater. When they get their spurts, they will tend to get that thing moving, even if the suction cups are good. Last thing you want is a broken heater in a tank that size.

As for plants, anything you put in should stay near the back so he still has the full length of the tank for swimming. I have found that they will even remove short plants in their main swim pattern.

Do you plan on putting in any other fish to keep him company? Some dithers might help him remain calm.

That guy is gonna get to 24 inch. Quickly. Lol

He's now 12in almost 13, yes hes been growing very fast because all i give him is shrimp, its a good idea about putting plants on the back, i have a african knife and a eclipse catfish, i just bought a Silver Tiger Datnoid yesterday and it looks that they are getting along very well i guess, god if he gets to 24in i dont know what im gonna do with him lol, i cant afford a 120gl right now (unless i find a cheap one)..

That's a big boy!

Look on CL for a tank or start digging a pond!

What CL area are you in? I'm good at tracking down tanks.

KMX wrote:

That's a big boy!

Look on CL for a tank or start digging a pond!

What CL area are you in? I'm good at tracking down tanks.

Good idea!, im in Fort Myers Area (Lee County)

i agree with kory, start digging a pond lol. he is going to get huge.

istrober wrote:

He's now 12in almost 13, yes hes been growing very fast because all i give him is shrimp,

You may consider adding variety to his diet. Pacu are largely vegetarian in nature. They need a large quantity of vegetable matter in their diet to maintain a healthy digestive system. They love algae wafers and you can use fresh veggies to supplement his diet. We have found cucumber, zucchini, romaine lettuce, fresh green beans, etc... very reasonably priced and absolutely devoured by the Pacu.

I tried giving some zucchini, lettuce, but he doesnt even touch it, all he wants is MEAT!! lol, i dont know if is because i never gave him vegetables since he was 3in long when i bought it, all hes been eating is pellets, and shrimp. What can i do to make him eat vegetables???

I'm not sure how to get him to eat his veggies. Mine will automatically go for the more heavily vegetated food. Since I make my own foods, I have an easy way to adjust the diets of all my fish by adjusting the amount of vegetation to meat in the foods I make. It may be a matter of trying to feed both meat and produce at the same time. Start with more meat than veggie, slowly increasing the veggie and decreasing the meat. You won't want to totally cut the meat out of his diet, but you do want to add vegetable matter.

As long as he has shown no signs of intestinal problems (stringy, trailing fecal matter, bloating, swim problems, etc...) there may not be an issue for him. He certainly looks healthy and happy.

When you feed the vegetables, do you just let it float, or do you attach it to something to make it sink? We noticed that they are more likely to eat it if it sinks. I think they may have trouble chewing on something that is free-floating.

Yeah ill try that, you are totally right, when i feeding sometimes he eats of my hand, but most of the time he doesnt eat until the food drops to the ground, the veggies i just drop it and it goes down (not the lettuce). Does your pacu sometimes acts very active?? like he starts swiming up and down when you go far away from the tank??? he makes me laugh a lot cuz he looks like a dog moving his tail...

When I had my Pacu I fed him karrots and he loved them.You could here him crunch the karrots and eat them.

Mine are always active. They actually start begging when I come into the room. They think it's feeding time. They can be worse than dogs. They will start swimming up and down and hang round at the top where I usually feed. When I open the lids, they are already trying to catch their dinner and I haven't even dropped it in yet.

Ours like carrots as well. I have several food mixes and have niticed the Pacu go for the heaviest veggie/fruit mixes. They will eat just about anything, but we have found that they don't like radishes. They won't even nibble on them!!

lol no i know hes not the only spoiled pacu on the earth, yesterday he finally let me touch him and rub his top fin!!, ill try to feed him with some carrots today.

I will give you a bit of my homemade food when you come by for that filter, its 50-50 meat and veggi. I feed it to everyone a few times a week, everyone from mollys to flowerhorns loves it!

Ok that'll be nice!, you guys got to show me how that homemade food works, because spending $10.00 of shrimp all the time i think its better of doing homemade stuff..

I make my homemade food like 5lbs at the time, its lasted me about 8 months..... It was roughly $20-$30 to make, it all depends on what you put in it on how much it will cost. Its also a lot safer than using feeder shrimp, live foods run you the risk of parasites and disease, frozen foods tend to be much safer.
But if you have a wife or girlfriend you may want to get your own blender to make it in..... Or it could get ugly

Thats definitely worth it, now i have a big homework for my wife

I can tell you that we usually get our produce at the 99 cent store, and the fish/shrimp at the local mexican grocers. The prices are better and the quality is usually higher. They are also less likely to have as much pesticide or injected filler.

With some of the produce, you may have to remove the skin, but for the most part you can just make sure it is thouroughly washed. Since they wax cucumber skins, that will have to be removed. Hard skins like squashes will have to come off. Fruits, you just have to watch the seeds.

We can usually make about 5 lbs of food for less than $20.00 depending on what we can find on sale.

I use different blends for different purposes. Fry get their own blend - high protien. Pacu and Silver Dollars get the higher vegetation. Everybody else gets a variety. By making different blends, I can also add variety to their diets and keep a rotation going. This is especially important when you are conditioning your maters to spawn.

he will die in a pond unless you have it heated n to much shrimp is badd for him as for the plants they like to eat them or up root them

he will die in a pond unless you have it heated n to much shrimp is badd for him as for the plants they like to eat them or up root them