Pacu Fish

• Aquaria
Pacu are commonly sold as "Vegetarian Piranhas" to home aquarium owners. With the proper equipment and commitment, pacu have been known to make responsive pets. One such example was Swish, a 75 cm (30-inch) pacu owned for over 20 years by a Chinese restaurant (Kau Kau) in the Chinatown district in Seattle, Washington; one aquarium technician said of Swish, "He'd rub his body on your arms, kind of like a dog."
However, there is some question of whether the fish are a good choice for the typical hobbyist. While they are not aggressive carnivores like the piranha, their crushing jaw system, used primarily for eating seeds and nuts, can be hazardous. One toddler needed surgery after a pacu (misreported as a piranha) bit her finger at Edinburgh Butterfly and Insect World in Scotland. Commenting on the incident, Deep Sea World zoological manager Matthew Kane warned, "Pacus will eat anything, even children's wiggling fingers."
If a large population of pacu enters an eco-system to which it isn't native, the fish can have a very adverse effect. Pet stores sell pacu as small as 5–8 cm (2-3 inches) long and neglect to warn customers that fish growth is not inhibited by tank size, contrary to popular fish lore. "Most UK dealers now refuse to stock this species due to the large size and expensive aquarium requirements it demands," according to Practical Fishkeeping magazine's Matt Clarke. Incapable of maintaining large aquaria, overwhelmed hobbyists are suspected of illegally releasing their pacu into wild waterways. As tropical fish, pacu will die in cold weather; as newcomers to an ecosystem, pacu may out-compete native species for available food, habitat, and other resources, or displace them by introducing exotic parasites or diseases. Most wildlife resource authorities prohibit releasing exotic fish, including pacu, into the wild. Officials of one Texas lake have put a $100 bounty on the pacu caught there.