The Pacu-Box

[MooChiChi]

Hello friends,

I share my Pacu-Box with you today!

Of course, we're all happy AF because DLC introduced feeding seeds to pacus. Well, the most of us, probably, maybe. However, pacus have never been easier to keep. The following build is fairly simple, definitely compact and modular as well. There is nothing astonishing to except. It's just feeding one pacu (via seeds) and receiving one-pacu-stuff - in a box.

NOTE: If you feed them with algae instead, there is no automation to reduce the consumption of 140 kg/cycle!

• Avg. ~1,97 cycles: 1x pacu fillet (1000 kcal) / 1x egg shell (2000g)
• Requirement: 0,33 seed per cycle (lifetime avg. = 0,27)
• No dupe labor / No crazy automation / No incubator(s) / No shenanigans
• Just set it and forget it!

 

Manual

There is one pacu that has everything he needs to be happy in the pool. Let's call him Nemo. Nemo eats from the fish feeder regularly, excretes tiny amounts of polluted dirt and lays eggs diligently. While the left conveyor loader removes the polluted dirt, the right one transports the eggs into the upper chamber (also the seeds enter the system this way).

In the upper chamber, all the eggs remain on the fish feeder until they eventually hatch. Once hatched, the pacu baby can find itself in one of two scenarios:

• The left (automatic) door is closed, the right (pneumatic) door is open: So the fish flop to the right, into the small basin, where it stays until it turns into pacu fillet.
• The right (pneumatic) door is closed, the left (automatic) door is open: So the fish flop to the left, into the pool, where it becomes the new Nemo.

Circumstances for the second scenario are as follows: As soon as Nemo dies, the critter sensor will detect less than one critter in the pool and send a green signal. The signal opens the automatic door and closes the pneumatic door via NOT-gate. That is basically the entire automation of the build.

NOTES:

• To "start" the Pacu-Box, just throw a pacu/pacu egg onto the fish feeder or into the pool. More than one pacu/pacu egg is not allowed in the pool (overcrowded).
• After Nemo has died, there is a delay of ~350 seconds until his replacement has hatched and flopped into the pool. That's why we don't calculate (pacu fillet and egg shells) with the exact avg. value of 1,92.
• Each pacu-type behave the same when it comes to seed consumption.
• @Yunrusuggestet to widen/deepen the laying tank - which is a great idea! This way you can increase the number of pacus in the laying tank up to a desired number (each pacu requires 8 tiles space). An example of this later on.
• Do not exchange the right pneumatic door with an automatic door.
• Trivia: Even if water is one tile away to the left, pacus will always flop to the right (no matter how far), if they can reach water this way.

 

Seed chance & seed choice

As long as you have a good farmer and grow something, there will always be enough seeds to feed a pacu consistently (probably several). So it is not necessary to grow extra plants for your pacus. However, I would like to suggest some interesting candidates:

• Balm Lily: Since it requires only chlorine atmosphere and temperature above 35°C, it's de facto for free (besides harvest labor). Furthermore dreckos eat balm lilies, which closes the cycle of all Surf'n Turf ingredients.
• Dasha Saltvine: Have you ever wondered what chlorine geysers are actually good for? Dashas also grow very fast and are sand-positive, if you process the harvested salt into table salt (and sand).
• Grubfruit Plants: If you already feed your dupes via Grubfruit Preserve, then you will also gain large quantities of grubfruit plant seeds, to feed several pacus.
• Nosh Sprout: A bit more expensive to maintain, but allows you to calculate in definitive numbers (pacus treat the harvested 12 nosh beans like 12 seeds). Keep in mind that the stored nosh beans in the fish feeder will continue decay.

There is also the excellent possibility of gaining arbor acorns automated and without dupe labor. Many thanks @kbn, click here to visit the topic. At this point I would also thanks @SamLogan for reminding me, that I forgot to mention this post (silly me). Arigato!

NOTES:

• Pacus will eat any kind of seed. So do not feed them (accidentally) with your wheezwort, oxyfern and/or decor plant seeds.
• If a plant remains unharvested until the harvest drops 4 cycles after ripening, the seed chance corresponds 10% (base).
• In case you wonder: seed values such like 1.666678 occurs i.a. because pacus eat only 1/3 of a seed (baby pacus even less).
• Sleet Wheat Grain? No Sir.

 

Is it worth keeping pacus?

Since DLC absolutely yes. Because they convert superfluous seeds into food and -more important- lime, IMHO you should even keep some.

Processed into Surf'n Turf (+12 morale), one happy/tame pacu provide enough fillet (respectively cooked fish) to feed 3 dupes. Of course, 4000 kcal barbeque are also required (maybe via Balm Lily drecko ranch?). Without further processing the same happy/tame pacu do not provide enough fillet (respectively cooked fish) to feed even one dupe. Keep that in mind.

Since pacus reproduces very fast and has among all critters the egg shell with the largest mass (2000g), this makes them an excellent renewable source of lime. Let's take a look at the values in comparison:

For the comparison, we calculate with happy/tame critters under perfect conditions, as theoretically possible, but not in practice. In order to take the practice-related fluctuation into account, an average value of -5% should be assumed.

Interesting: there are more than 40 kg steel in one seed

• Rock Crusher -> 100 kg Fossil = 5 kg Lime + 95 kg Sedimentary Rock

 

Put them together...

 

...or even better: Pacu-Box 2.0 (inspired by @Yunru)

NOTE: Once again we've calculated under perfect conditions. Be aware: pacu frys and the already mentioned delay after Nemo's dead has to be taken into account (worst case: -23%).

Don't forget to set the critter sensor to <=3 critter, if you choose this (highly recommended) design.

 

Hints

• The fish feeder might be buggy and does not feed pacus (with seeds). Deconstruct and rebuild solved the issue for me permanently.
• The spoon of the fish feeder might be obvious empty, while feeding seeds. It seems to be a visual flaw, because the pacu eats from it anyway.

 

Thanks for your attention!

Kind regards

[Yunru]

One suggestion would be to widen/deepen the laying tank and increase the critter sensor to 2. 

That way, you reduce the potential downtime whilst the fry grows up. 

[MooChiChi]

1 minute ago, Yunru said:

One suggestion would be to widen the laying tank and increase the critter sensor to 2. 

That way, you reduce the potential downtime whilst the fry grows up. 

This is a good idea! Have to see how this can be arranged with my OCD

[Yunru]

1 minute ago, MooChiChi said:

This is a good idea! Have to see how this can be arranged with my OCD

Easiest might be to just expand it downwards, then it retains it's rectangular shape. 

[MooChiChi]

24 minutes ago, Yunru said:

Easiest might be to just expand it downwards, then it retains it's rectangular shape. 

This is even a great idea! Also absolutely compatible with my OCD!

[sakura_sk]

I thought that symbol "∅" meant "nothing/empty"...

[MooChiChi]

10 minutes ago, sakura_sk said:

I thought that symbol "∅" meant "nothing/empty"...

TBH I thought this is (like in germany) also the international meaning of average. I'll check this out asap.

Edit: Checked!

TIL:

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ø

As so often: thank you very much for the useful hint dear @sakura_sk

[sakura_sk]

Sorry @MooChiChi ... You triggered my memory of mathematics  (I almost forgot these symbols existed... )

Spoiler

 

[zach123b]

what about using nosh beans with gulp fish?  just use brine or petrol/crude so they don't freeze over as nosh beans need to be under -4c if i remember right

you can feed... i think it was 2 pacu per 1 nosh bean plant before fertilizer or grubgrubs.  i'm planning to do ethanol production and feed the dupes with slicksters+pacu for surf n turf

[MooChiChi]

27 minutes ago, zach123b said:

what about using nosh beans with gulp fish?  just use brine or petrol/crude so they don't freeze over as nosh beans need to be under -4c if i remember right

you can feed... i think it was 2 pacu per 1 nosh bean plant before fertilizer or grubgrubs.  i'm planning to do ethanol production and feed the dupes with slicksters+pacu for surf n turf

Each pacu-type behave the same, when it comes to consume seeds. Pacus will consume nosh beans just like seeds (1/3 per pacu / per cycle). Accordingly to the ingame database nosh sprout require temperature between -25 to 0 °C.

[The Plum Gate]

This is very nice.

Might I speculate as to it being possible for the pacu birthmother die and the egg sitting on the feeder tank to spoil? Why don't they spoil out of water? 

In any event, wouldn't it be possible to drop a eggs from different chutes, and then drop most recent egg back into pool, you would have to use a counter and possibly a weight plate and something the resets the counter and opens the door.

This would cause a delay due to incubation as noted. And it would probably be over automated too. Hmm. Makes me wonder.

I would like to use glass like an aquarium. But the excessive automation would be bad decor shining through.

[Pyrex042]

Do the eggs sitting on the feeder not count as being in the same room as the rest of the pacu in the 1x1 tank?

It doesn't look like the autosweeper in the top area  has anywhere to put eggs picked up from the 1x1, so unless I'm misunderstanding you're losing a lot of efficiency due to the un-fed fish being Cramped and not replacing themselves with an egg before they die.

This design is three times the size of yours, but by pulling the eggs out of the starvation tank into a separate room it avoids the Cramped debuff and your Pacu population (and food output) keeps going up: 

Edit:  By making a couple tiles taller, you could mod it pretty easy.  Put a pneumatic door above the sweeper & where the chute currently are, and move the chute two tiles above where the upper Loader currently sits.

 

[MooChiChi]

3 minutes ago, The Plum Gate said:

Might I speculate as to it being possible for the pacu birthmother di and the egg sitting on the feeder tank to spoil? Why don't they spoil out of water? 

The eggs definitely don't spoil - even if the opposite is logical. Actually they will continue incubating in any gas, vacuum and even in magma. That is strange.

28 minutes ago, The Plum Gate said:

In any event, wouldn't it be possible to drop a eggs from different chutes, and then drop most recent egg back into pool, you would have to use a counter and possibly a weight plate and something the resets the counter and opens the door.

This would cause a delay due to incubation as noted. And it would probably be over automated too. Hmm. Makes me wonder.

Yes, that is definitely possible. But this would require (a lot) more automation and stuff, which I actually wanted to keep as low as possible (in this build). The 2.0 version maintains 3 pacus. This doesen't change the delay(s), but the output can be increased noticeably with little effort. However, I will continue optimization of this build and update the topic, if there is something new.

28 minutes ago, The Plum Gate said:

I would like to use glass like an aquarium. But the excessive automation would be bad decor shining through.

I often build one Pacu-Box next to the kitchen with glass tiles, so my cook can enjoy the floating around pacu fillets

[Yunru]

8 minutes ago, Pyrex042 said:

but by pulling the eggs out of the starvation tank into a separate room it avoids the Cramped debuff and your Pacu population (and food output) keeps going up

That's not how it works.

Cramped counts critters and eggs, not just eggs.

[Pyrex042]

Edit: Bad wording

Overcrowded applies when total Critter count (including eggs) is too high.  Cramped only applies when Overcrowded with at least one Egg.

[SamLogan]

Great guide thanks for the share.You just forgot this free and automated seed generator :

From my estimation, it generate one seed / cycle. No Duplicant needed

 

[MooChiChi]

12 minutes ago, Pyrex042 said:

Do the eggs sitting on the feeder not count as being in the same room as the rest of the pacu in the 1x1 tank?

Nope. The pacus in the 1x1 tank a indeed confined in the pneumatic door.

14 minutes ago, Pyrex042 said:

It doesn't look like the autosweeper in the top area  has anywhere to put eggs picked up from the 1x1, so unless I'm misunderstanding you're losing a lot of efficiency due to the un-fed fish being Cramped and not replacing themselves with an egg before they die.

The pacus in the 1x1 tank dont lay eggs. The just die and turn into fillet - that's it.

I am aware that something could be changed here and there, to make something different out of this build. But that's not what I meant when I wrote:

4 hours ago, MooChiChi said:

The following build is fairly simple, definitely compact and modular as well. There is nothing astonishing to except. It's just feeding one pacu (via seeds) and receiving one-pacu-stuff - in a box.

 

7 minutes ago, SamLogan said:

Great guide thanks for the share.You just forgot this free and automated seed generator :

From my estimation, it generate one seed / cycle. No Duplicant needed

Yes, you're right! Do you have a source? I will edit this.

[SamLogan]

3 minutes ago, MooChiChi said:

Yes, you're right! Do you have a source? I will edit this.

Sure :

I've used it in a real game, and it works perfectly.

[Pyrex042]

32 minutes ago, Yunru said:

That's not how it works.

Cramped counts critters and eggs, not just eggs.

43 definitely not Cramped Pacu.

[sakura_sk]

 Are you serious @Pyrex042?!   4 digits hours of play and I still don't know how to play..........

It's even "-cramped- if whichever critter egg is present" meaning if you mix critters any kind of egg would get them cramped

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Pyrex042]

26 minutes ago, sakura_sk said:

 Are you serious @Pyrex042?!   4 digits hours of play and I still don't know how to play..........

Complicated game is complicated.  =D

I didn't understand how Overcrowded/Cramped worked until I ran out of Sulfur on my DLC base and needed to ramp up the wild Pacu in my water tank and found the above build.  

Lot of good stuff happening in MooChiChi's build though, pretty sure I could hybridize them and cut the size of the one I'm using in half next time.

[ghkbrew]

Nice, I had no idea you could build a solid block under the feeder and it would still work.

Still, it seems like a waste not to breed the fish in the upper pool. If you give them a little more space they will lay one egg in each, giving you an ever-expanding population. Is it an intentional choice to not use a infinite pacu glum farm?

[Nxf7]

2 minutes ago, ghkbrew said:

Still, it seems like a waste not to breed the fish in the upper pool. If you give them a little more space they will lay one egg in each, giving you an ever-expanding population. Is it an intentional choice to not use a infinite pacu glum farm?

Seems like it, but what's weird to me is that it's half and half. The benefits of killing them would be to keep critter count low to save frame rate, but it's not doing that, it keeps them alive for 25 cycles.

Some other options would be:
1. Breed gulp fish, and hatched fish that flop right will flop into hot water, kept hot by tepidizer (probably needs vacuum and insulated tiles to keep heat in).
2. Make omelettes instead.
3. Do the usual 1x1 pit except don't confine them.

[DamnLord]

Here is my pacu farm and you can have as much pacus as you want or you can use it as modular system.

Block 1 - used for can sustain two pacus. Thay are used for laying eggs. (you can make this block smaller 1/2 if you want but it will hold only 1 pacu.

The critter sensor here is set to "bellow 2". The Fish release in block 1 is higher priority than the Fish release in block 2.

When a pacu dies the door opens and the next pacu who hatched will be put in block 1.

All the dups sensors are there just for fun (not trapping dup in block 1 when the door is locked)

Block 2 - pacus home.

The critter sensor is set to "above 64" (a want a lot of free food). When the count hit 64+ the door is locked (egg incubator is disabled) and the dups can't get to the room, until then the eggs are loaded automatically in to the incubator.

The clock is set to run the incubator for 10% of the day in order to save on power (you can do it with it)

You may notice that the block 2 is not closed, in order for the pacu not getting the "cramp" debuff you need a lot of space (10 tiles of space per fish , but i'm not sure for this).

The rest of the automation is just for not trapping a dup inside.

Everything else is there to get the food and the eggs shells out and the food for the pacus in.

 

The only dups labor is until block 2 is full.

At full it has around 70 pacus, this can give you around 2000-3000 kcal per cycle, and you can set second room.

You will get this kcal for NOTHING after that, no labor, nothing

If you combine pacu with some meat you can feed a LOT of dups.

sorry for my English, i'm still learning.

[The Plum Gate]

Is an egg the only thing that makes it cramped?

Anyway, I'm thinking of @MooChiChi's design and the 8 tiles 'requirement'. Is this an arbitrary concept, are the fish in the pneumatic door not cramped? - just glum? Is Glum the condition of too little space? ...maybe it was the Confined state instead? doesn't confined eventually kill them? but still, I have trapped many critters in tiles and not had them die for many cycles ( with shinebugs being an exception ).

Honestly, I'm thinking they got some of these critter state definitions defined in such a way as to be misleading.

If I were to look at this 8 tile per Pacu thing - is it counting the mass in the water? 8 full tiles, or just eight tiles considered to be a liquid, because I'm already coming up with some fishbowl cheese to save on the liquid mass ( if needed ). I was thinking like three layers of liquids at really low mass - and voila! - fishbowls can be filled with minor amounts of swept fluids.