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Ive just got two pictus catfish from lfs. they both seem to leave the other fish in the tank alone but one picks on the other all the time.. when we first picked them up we noticed one was missing the bone part of one of his fins. at first we thought this was due to some store employee netting him and putting him back. but now he is missing a second fin.. the only other fish in the tank right now are zebra danios so i doubt they had anything to do with it.. we also notice some aggresion from the other cat.. from what ive read this fish should do well in pairs or small groups.. i know fish grow back fins, but will they grow back the bone?.. will this affect his lifespan? should i bring the aggresive one back and try to get another pictus cat? atm my other tank is populated with about 50 zebra danio fry so i dont have another tank to put him in. also the more aggresive P.C. is always eating all their pellets. he floats around with a round belly while the other one is scavaging around for leftovers.

Any advise will help.. Thnks
CJ

Sciades pictus (or whatever it's been changed to recently) is territorial. And grows to TWO FEET. So you should either keep just the one, or if you have an ENORMOUS aquarium, a group of at least six. But to keep six or more in surroundings that minimise aggression, you'll need something like 5,000 gallons minimum.

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Hrmm.. must be a different type of pictus cat.. i have (or think i have) Pimelodus pictus FP lists as 4.3" but i hear up to 7" in aquarium.. my tank is 90g so they do have some room to share. i think ive seen the pictus cat your talking about in my resent searches though.. darker with a kinda yellowish pattern if i rember..

thnks for quick reply
-CJ

I have 2 Pictus catfish and they do not pick on anything including themselves. They both hide out in separate logs. One zips around the tank during daylight hours, while the other hides alot. They eat frozen bloodworm/ shrimp.
If I was you, I would take both back. Tell them one was damaged, cause you do not know if this will effect the life on the fish or not. The other may be aggressive to the injured one because it is showing signs of injury.
Some fish, (like my Rosy bards) see a sick or injured fish, will pick on it.

Pictus do need large tanks glad you've got yours in a 90. They are schooling fish so I'd look to get a few more. Yes they will eat smaller fish although the Zebras should be fast enough to escape them. They're also very active as you've noticed. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the damage was done by the netting, alot of times they'll use mesh nets which is a big no no for pictus...(I learned the hard way >.&lt.
Make sure they have lots of swimming room, and check out your aquascape for anthing that they might have hit up against. When pictus are stressed they'll dart around much faster than is likely good for them. I'd also dose with melafix, it's good in instances where there's not all that much wrong and will aid in the healing process. If you can find it a large bottle of Pond strength melafix will be useful.

Good luck with yours. I had one for awhile that came with a badly stocked used tank...if I ever get to have the tank that would hold them....I'd get some more...the little guy worked his way into my heart ... after he ate the neons that is .

^_^
*Proud member of the Committee for Sig Line Restoration*

wompa- i posted a thread with similar questions awhile back. my kids had to have a pair, but i never kept them before.

forget the "adult" size posted in the various fish profiles. every one listed WIDELY differently sizes. one of mine is growing quite a bit, the other is not. both are healthy. they currently reside in an understocked 125 gal, so i am not too concerned about their eventual size.

mine get along very well. however, my tank has lots of nooks and crannies for various fish to call their own. if your tank is lacking in hiding spots, your pictus may be fighting over a prime cave. during the day, they seem to stay within darting distance of their refuges (lights out is a different strory).

the recent loss of its fin in your tank was probably due to unnoticable damage done to it during netting at the lfs. if you suspect damage due to hostility, by all means exchange one if possible. why stress them if you can avoid it?

i would love to hear reports of their sizes from people who have kept them for a number of years. they are very pretty fish, seem to be easy to care for, and are comical to watch.

good luck- you will soon find people on this site give excellent advice. i swear some of them were tropical fish in a different life.

Thnks for the all the quick feedback.. I think you may be right that the dmg couldve already been done.. the guy who bagged them both up was very carefull and caught them in the mini tank.. only using the net to corral them into the small container. however.. he did say hes had to cut nets to peices to get them out for other less knowledgable employees..

Im still new to the hobby so i could be mistaking good old rough housing with fighting or aggression.. after all they ATTACK the food. its not nearly as violent looking when he "attacks" the other guy. also now that i think about it.. the fin part doesnt seem dmged. its just missing the bone. i imagine that if the fish was doing the damage id see torn fin rather than missing bone. I guess i just have to keep a really close eye on them for a bit.. if i see any other dmg or signs of stress ill take the aggresive one back. (my girlfriend is already attached to the one that gets picked on.. i call him gimpy).. as far as hiding spots.. their is 2 nice sized caves they both hang around in. but they do so at random.. sometimes both in one sometimes switch back and forth. im planning on adding driftwood and alot of plants.. but im having trouble finding a nice peice of driftwood thats the right size. also im waiting for my Co2 injection before i add the plants..

Anyway ill try the Melafix to see if that helps it heal. Should i just dose the whole 90g tank?.
Anyway he will grow back the boney part of his fin?
I think ill go get a couple of cheep temporary caves untill i get my driftwood and the rest of my rock...

Thnks a ton for your help guys.. i feel alot better knowing i have a resourse to refer to other than my LFS
-CJ

Here is a photo of my Pictus at there cave entrance I have four in my tank I find them extremly shy but will share their cave with the Clown Loaches & the Hoplo Catfish.

I have never had a problem with them at all.

Keith

keithgh attached this image:


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I also have 2 pictus catfish and they do not bother anything or anyone. they are fastest and coolest fish i think i have. Now on the other hand i also have 2 alibino channel catfish and they think they own my tank. i can not put any new fish in their without them attacking them if not eat them. i also have 2 ghost catfish they are ok they seem shy though all they do is hang out on top of the tank and chill till i put food in then they go
Roberta

Ah. Confusion reigns again.

There are TWO Pictus cats. Pimelodus pictus can reach 12 inches, but usually maxes out at around 8 in the typical aquarium. Sciades pictus, on the other hand, is a two-foot monster that ***WILL*** outgrow a small aquarium quickly in a manner similar to a Red-Tail.

I don't know if P. pictus is territorial or not, but S. pictus definitely is. And at two feet in length, keeping several of them in surroundings that will mitigate against aggression requires HUGE amounts of space.

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

There are TWO Pictus cats. Pimelodus pictus can reach 12 inches, but usually maxes out at around 8 in the typical aquarium. Sciades pictus, on the other hand, is a two-foot monster that ***WILL*** outgrow a small aquarium quickly in a manner similar to a Red-Tail

I can't seem to find info on the Sciades pictus. the only thing I can find looks nothing like a "common pictus" other than the long whiskers. From everyone and everything I have read about the P. pictus is that they reach either 4" or 8" max I can't remember if there even is a way to tell those two apart ( think there is a way with the pattern but I can't remember off the top of my head ) But I am still curious as to what exactly this Sciades one is as I can't seem to find anything even on planetcatfish.com.

It's been renamed Leiarus pictus. I have a pic of a two-footer in an issue of Practical Fishkeeping.

In fact, this is the very fish - part of Sean Evans' collection from the magazine article.

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Tanks/mytank2.htm

Oh,. by the way, Sean Evans (who set up the website) keeps a huge collection of big oddballs (I wrote an article about him in General Freshwater before the archiving operation). If you want to see something really scary, just take a look at his Wolf Fish ...

Last edited by Calilasseia at 09-Oct-2004 08:28

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002