Red Bellied Pacu

Red Bellied Pacu on Thai fishing park record boards are most likely Piaractus brachypomus. You'll still see them labelled Colossoma bidens on older signage and in older write-ups — that name is now treated as a synonym, and true Colossoma refers to the Tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum), a distinct, even larger relative also stocked in Thailand.

Pacu teeth resemble human teeth as you can see in our photo’s and are used to crush nuts and seeds that would fall from the Amazonian forests into the Pacu’s water.

Red Bellied Pacu are Omnivores and will eat a wide range of food. Their favoured natural diet is vegetation, nuts and seeds but will also take most other offerings like small fish, vegetable, insects, meat, rice or dead baits. The teeth resemble human teeth and are used to crush nuts and seeds that would fall from the Amazonian forests into the Pacu's water. They are Closely related to the infamous Piranha fish, the main difference being the Piranha have pointed, razor-sharp teeth (Carnivores) and pacu have square, straight teeth (Omnivore). Red bellied pacu can also grow much larger than piranha but are not overly aggressive.

The teeth of the Red bellied Pacu are good for crushing nuts and chomping vegetation. They can be caught on a wide variety of baits. Pacu are also predatory from juveniles to adult and will take small fish, flies and lures

Pacu have been introduced to many many fishing parks around Thailand. They are a popular imported fish species as they are fast growing, strong fighting and will take many different kinds of baits.