My fish is eating rocks

Question
Hey, ever since I got my redbellied pacu,she has been eating rocks.Every body says im under feeding her.Im feeding her Oranda gold fish food from Hikari.The food is left from my other fish I had, a redcap oranda.It died a while ago.My pacu wont eat flakes.So i give her what I got.Is that an ok thing to feed my fish?The pellets float and they are a little smaller than a bb.I feed her three of them a day.My pacu is roughly from 3 to 3 1/2 inches long.She is in a ten gallon tank.The rocks are a very neon color under floresent light.She is with no other tankmates.So can you please tell me what she is doing this for?Thanks!!!

Answer
Hi Adam,
Since Pacus are fast growers and put on a lot of bulk, your little pacu needs more to eat. Pacus seem to be very curious about their environment and have been known to carry gravel around in their mouths. There's not much you can do besides hope the gravel is passed by the pacu.

Pacus generally eat just about anything. Yours would probably do better on a high quality cichlid pellet food supplemented with lots of variety for good health. Pacus are big vegetarians so keep that in mind. Yours can also each the oranda food, just supplement her diet better (such as with veggies and frozen fish foods) and make sure the tank is kept very clean (three times a week 30-50% water changes are best, make sure the replacement water is treated with a water conditioner and the temp is equal to or just a bit warmer than your tank) since these fish are huge polluters and grow so fast and large.

Best of luck and I hope this helps!!!!
Karen~