Sheep Pacu

This pacu is a close relative of the piranhas, but it is a plant eater. It reaches about 20 cm and lives in the rivers of northeastern South America. The mouth sits low on the head, which is exactly the tool it needs for grazing plants off the river bed.

Also known as: slender pacu

It is a river fish of the Guianas, known for certain from the Maroni and Mana rivers and from the Marowijne and Suriname rivers. Records from further west and south have not been confirmed. Young fish keep to small creeks with sandy beds, where the water runs clear to tea brown and carries few dissolved salts. Adults move out into the main river channels and stay over beds of water plants.

Its eyes are large for its size, which points to a fish most active at dawn and dusk. The low-set mouth lets it work over plants growing on the bottom, and it also takes seeds, fruit and flowers that drop into the water from above. Young fish start life in creeks, then move to larger rivers once part grown. There they gather in shoals along the banks and over shallow sandbars. Older fish drop the company and live alone in the middle of the channel.