Piaractus

Piaractus is a genus of large serrasalmid from South America.^[1] The two traditionally recognized species of Piaractus are very similar in appearance and were formerly included in the genus Colossoma, which currently only contains another similar species, the tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum).^[2][3] A third Piaractus was described in 2019 as a new species, but it was formerly considered a subpopulation of P. brachypomus.^[4]

Piaractus
Juvenile Piaractus brachypomus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Characiformes
Family:	Serrasalmidae
Subfamily:	Colossomatinae
Genus:	Piaractus C. H. Eigenmann, 1903
Type species
Myletes brachypomus G. Cuvier, 1817

Species

There are currently three recognized species in this genus:^[1][4][5]

• Piaractus brachypomus (G. Cuvier, 1818) (Pirapatinga or red-bellied pacu)
• Piaractus mesopotamicus (Holmberg, 1887) (small-scaled pacu or Paraná River pacu)
• Piaractus orinoquensis Escobar et al., 2019