When I first stocked them I read where they were not a real good fish market fish as they had a y shaped bone along their backbone. Someone was working on a cooking method toasting the bone and allowing the meat to be used in fish sticks and similar items.
No one who has eaten the 50 or so we have given away or eaten ourselves has ever complained about bones. The taste is excellent.
Mine are around 8 pounds in a little over two years, from about 1 3/4". I noticed that on the two occasions that I have slowed feeding or changed to a lower protein food the pacu have slowed or stopped growing. They will get fat when fed a lot, you can see it in their bodies, they apparently store up for the lean times. Don, another Thai pond guy had 12 pounders at 3 years and caught at least one on live bait. I have caught them on a rapala like lure but, later lost the lure when one took it into the bamboo.
They eat/attack all of my plants, but remember I started with 100. I have between 10 and 20 left and they will be catch and release only for a year or so.
And as for hook shy, mine school, so when one gets hooked the rest go into seclusion. That is if I am fishing the surface, fishing the bottom I can catch them all day and have caught one twice in the same session.
ML, have you thought of raising another set as a back up?
