Pacu fish feed on vegetable matter in the wild, but will also scavenge on carcasses and take bites of the fins of other fishes if presented with the opportunity.
The best way to feed any pet is to feed them the diet that they would have if they were in the wild. This often means a much more varied diet, with well balanced nutrition.
In the wild, Pacu fish eat mainly vegetation growing along the river banks that falls into the water. These includes nuts, fruits, stems and leaves, so it makes sense to offer your Pacu fish fresh vegetables like spinach and potato. But try to avoid nuts because they dirty the water with broken pieces of the nut shell after your Pacu fish has crushed the nut. Nuts also contain a high oil content which causes the water to become greasy after the nut has been crushed.
To supplement your Pacu fish with the required nutrition they get from nuts in the wild, you need to couple your Pacu fish diet with frozen fish foods and processed plant-based foods.
While it seems like a good idea to be feeding your Pacu fish fresh food, fresh food can decay quickly if they are not fully consumed. This contaminates your tank and can lead to diseases. You should always remove any unconsumed food left lying in the tank after approximately 2 minutes of feeding.
You should feed your Pacu fish approximately once a day. Feeding more time in a day will lead to an increase in the amount of waste that your Pacu fish will produce, and therefore increasing the frequency at which you need to change your tank’s water.
Some people like to offer their Pacu fish with small fishes as snacks. Feeder goldfishes are a favorite choice as snack fish. While Pacu fish do eat live food in the wild, it is preferred that you do not offer them the same.
Feeder goldfishes are not very nutritious to Pacu fish. Pacu fish only supplement their diet with live food and carcasses in the wild when they have no other food available. This should not be the case for your Pacu fish.
Feeder fishes can sometime carry diseases from the breeding tank and introducing them into your tank as food presents risks risk your Pacu fish. Furthermore, live food is much messier than vegetables and will dirty your tank much more quickly.
If you decorate your tank with live plants, these plants can also be a source of food for your Pacu fish. They will usually eat the vegetables you drop into the tank and only nibble at the plants occasionally if you keep them well fed. However, that will still deface the plants significantly enough to affect the appearance of your aquarium.
Providing your Pacu fish with a proper diet plays a major part in maintaining their good health and allows them to live a long life. Be sure to treat feeding as an important activity instead of something that you do when you are bored.
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