pacu lashouts

[cocoa_pleco]

what causes these? only my largest one does it, my smaller one doesnt. he sometimes goes nuts and extremely violently thrashes allover, and i seriously mean he will dart at 200km/h or even faster. a few months ago when i had live rock in my hand, he did it, and now yesterday i was doing nothing and 5 feet from the tank and he suddenly flipped out, smashed the gravel, smashed into the side glass, flew up and smashed into the hood, and by that time i ran and flipped off the lights to calm him down

whats up with him? hes not scared of me or anything, ive raised him from only a few inches and he follows me around so i know its not that, but his lashouts are going to kill a fish or something else one day

[OscarFan]

My best guess would have to be lack of room. He may feel cramped and like a clausterohibiic person freak out.

[cocoa_pleco]

dont think hes cramped, hes got some body room left before he needs a bigger tank

he did these when he was young too though and tiny. his behaviour really changed when my oscar died, they were best buds and after he was never the same

[Northernguy]

Why not get another oscar!
How big are your pacu now?

[cocoa_pleco]

about 7" and 18". the biggest one will need to be moved to a larger tank soon

hes in no way violent though, one time i had my hand in the back working on something and my finger felt weird, he had half of my finger in his mouth. he could have closed his jaw and broke or even ripped off my finger if he pulled away but he just sat there and didnt do anything.

the tanks got no room for a oscar, but i think why he liked the oscar so much was they were both the same size when i got them and they grew up together. he tries to play wrestle with my red devil, but the red devil doesnt want anything to do with him

[Northernguy]

LOL I guess not.Not with a size difference like that.

[MCHRKiller]

Pacu are naturally jumpy fish. I have seen pics of your tank it looks to be fairly dim and has plenty of hiding spots which usually make them comfortable. I had a 13"er in my 150G who was always very tame and peaceful never jumpy. I came home one day to find him out in the hallway(15ft away) dried up and dead. I keep various things ontop of all my glass tops so he had to have spooked real good to flop out of the tank like that. They really arnt ment for the home tank, and sadly its rare to find a large Pacu who isnt jumpy like that...the only way they seem really secure is in tanks/ponds of several thousand gallons with atleast 4-5 members of their own kind.

Some things you can do...wrap your bulb in electrical tape to dim the lighting down some more, maybe add some floating plants avoild anything that could cause a reflection of something into the tank. Spending time with the Pacu also helps IMO.

[cocoa_pleco]

lol, plants were a no go. i tried some banana plants and java moss and both pacus just gobbled them

i might dim the lights, thats a good call. ive got a 2x54w T-5 on it leftover from my old reef so its a bit bright, i might just get a 1x40w fluorescent and see if its darker. the tank is naturally dim because of the load of tannins in it

[MCHRKiller]

Thats why ya get some fake floaters...Fancy Plants Giants makes a couple of nice looking ones without a base :)

[cer]

What tank size does he have?

[Northernguy]

Cocoa,its been a couple of days now. Hows your Pacu doing in the dimmer tank?

[cocoa_pleco]

hes better, none of his little freakouts yet