Portland Man Wins Fish At The Fair. Then It Just Keeps Growing: ‘Said It’d Grow With The Tank’

Out of all the different types of pets one can have, fish are often considered one of the easier ones to take care of.

Very quickly, though, fish owners realize that keeping aquatic animals alive and healthy requires constant upkeep. You need to feed them correctly, ensure good water quality, and sometimes go through a lot of “trial and error” that unfortunately ends up down the toilet.

One Portland-based TikTok creator who calls himself “the fish maestro” (@the_fish_maestro) is facing backlash as viewers question whether one of his fish has adequate living conditions.

In a recent video that got over 7.1 million views, he shows his pacu, which he calls “Uncle Steve.” It’s moving slowly through a tank. The fish is notably large, making both the other fish around it and the tank look smaller by comparison.

“The pet store guy said he’d grow to fit the tank,” he joked in the video’s text overlay. “Uncle Steve got huge.”

There is some confusion around Uncle Steve’s actual backstory, though.

In an older video, the creator says the fish was “won 30 years ago at the fair” by his grandmother, which doesn’t exactly line up with the pet-store story.

His TikTok bio also reads, “UNCLE STEVE IS HAPPY… he also isn’t mine and is a rescue.”

BroBible has reached out to the creator via TikTok messages to find out what the real backstory is.

What Kind Of Fish Is Uncle Steve?

The fish shown in the video appears to be a pacu, a South American freshwater fish known partly for its strangely human-looking teeth.

According to Bristol Aquarium, pacu belong to the Serrasalmidae family, which also includes piranhas. However, the two species are very different.

While piranhas are carnivores who mainly eat meat, pacu are omnivores that feed heavily on plants, seeds, fruit, nuts, and other food that falls into the water.

Uncle Steve appears most similar to a black pacu, or Colossoma macropomum, sometimes called the giant pacu.

Indeed, Bristol Aquarium says pacu can grow to more than a meter long (3.2 feet), with some weighing as much as 40 kilograms (around 88 pounds).

That’s also why the aquarium warns against keeping them as ordinary pets.

“Juvenile pacus are small and easy to keep, which leads them to be sold often in the pet trade,” Bristol Aquarium says. “The problem is these fish grow very big and will quickly outgrow even the bigger home tanks.”

Viewers Think The Tank Is Too Small

Viewers came to Uncle Steve the fish’s defense.

“Imagine being in a room where you could only take 3 steps for your entire life,” one commenter wrote.

“Imagine dying, being reborn as a fish, stuck doing endless circles till you die in a tank that’s 1/4 your size,” a second said.

“Any pet shop selling pacu should be shut down,” another added.

How Big Of A Tank Does A Pacu Actually Need?

One black pacu care guide recommends at least around 2,500 liters, or roughly 660 gallons, for a single adult. For some perspective, that’s about five times the volume of a 125-gallon aquarium. It’s also almost nine times the volume of a 75-gallon tank.

It’s important to note that tank volume isn’t only about giving the fish enough room to swim around. For example, fish release ammonia into the water, which is toxic, so an aquarium or tank also needs enough water volume and filtration to process that waste safely.

For another comparison, Bristol Aquarium keeps its rescued pacu in a 60,000-liter Amazon exhibit. That’s nearly 16,000 gallons.

BroBible has reached out to @the_fish_maestro via TikTok messages for comment and additional information.