stevensgirl7508

My boyfriend and I have had a red belly pacu for almost 10 months. We got him from wal-mart when he was about the size of a quarter, he's now bigger than your hand. About two weeks ago my boyfriend noticed he was paler than usual on his face, then we started to notice that he had a sore on his nose. The sore has now become two sunken in areas on his nose. I've treated the water with metaflex (I think that's what it's called, can't check I'm not home at the moment) and we've been changing the water (to include cleaning the gravel) every few days. The holes aren't getting any bigger now, but they're also not healing. What can I do? I've done some research and I it said give him frozen peas, I have, and orange slices, which I'm working on. None of his tankmates have this issue.

Je55*e

I don't know too much about pacus, other than that they're vegetarians and that they can get over three feet long. I've seen one almost this size firsthand. You'll either have to get a very large tank, or rehome the poor guy with someone with a very large tank. Best of luck.

aquarist48

WELCOME to Fish Lore. Sorry to hear about your Pacu having health problems. I've never had to deal with the problem that you're having so I can't really give you the right direction to follow. There is a disease called Hole in the Head that might be the problem.
http://www.fishlore.com/Disease.htm check out this link and see if it's beneficial for you. Good luck. I'm sure some others will come on with more information. Doing the water change was a great idea! When fish are ill their water needs to be as pristine as possible.
On another note, I've seen Pacu's get to 26" in a 125 gallon tank. They had no room to turn around. As stated above they get HUGE!

What are you readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

sirdarksol

Welcome to Fishlore.

Some great info above. My additions:
It sounds like you're changing all of the water at once. This isn't necessarily a good idea. Every time you do a full water change and gravel cleaning, you risk crashing the nitrogen cycle (click on the words to read about the cycle, if you don't already know about it). When I'm having issues with a tank, I'll usually do a 50% water change with a gravel vacuuming.

As was said, pacus get huge. One pacu needs a tank where the smallest dimension is larger than 3' (or, as aquarist said, it won't be able to turn around). This ends up being several hundred gallons. Walmart should not carry pacus, and they definitely shouldn't stock the dozen or so that most stores seem to have. An LFS that offers the proper info on caring for pacu will usually only sell one every few months or so because most aquarists don't have the money or space to set up a tank large enough for one of these behemoths.

The Melafix (I'm guessing that's what you've got) is a good addition, as long as you don't have any labyrinth fish (gouramis, bettas) in your aquarium. An overdose of Melafix can be fatal to labyrinth fish.

Amanda

It sounds like your pacu is hitting his face in the sides of the tank, the injuries sustained from that sound just like what you are describing. What size tank is he in? Have you noticed him bumping into the sides at all?

stevensgirl7508

I believe the tank is a 55 gallon, I'm not sure, it was a gift. He doesn't seem to be hitting the sides at all, he mostly stays toward the middle of the tank. I'm not sure about the water conditions, I took some water and had it tested at Petsmart and they told me it was ok. I am planning to get a larger tank when my boyfriend and I move, but as of right now, I can't afford one. I did some research on hole-in-head and the pictures don't seem to look like what he has.