Rubber Pacu

Name:   Rubber Pacu (Piaractus)

When:  Late September 2023

Where: Kendjam Lodge, Kayapo Territory, Amazonas, Brazil

This was the second Pacu species I caught at Kendjam. Smaller fish in quick moving water on a blue-sky day. Just the perfect surroundings. You can see how crystal clear the water is.

This species could almost be called the “translucent” Pacu because of its translucent look. Because of this, it is extremely hard to see in the water.

On the photo above, you can see that the top part of its Caudal fin had a little bite out of it. Probably a Piranha took a little bite.

While Pacu’s are similar in shape to piranha’s, they are very different in that Pacu are primarily omnivores and have different tooth structure than a piranha’s. Piranha’s teeth are razor-sharp with an underbite while the Pacu has squarer teeth. The Pacus teeth are well designed to crush vegetation including nuts and so forth in the water column.