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mr130gallon

mr130gallon

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I bought a baby (2.5 inch) pictus catfish about 2 weeks ago.

When i read about them i always read that they are placid, and im pretty sure that means peacefull, yet my pictus is semi agressive, he has a little area where he hangs around and feeds, its nice and shady, the plants privide shelter and the bogwood also does, but my rosy 1.5 inch rosy barbs go there to feed and hang out, but the pictus chases them away occasionally biting their fins. He also seems to be agressive to my bristlenose catfish, which are sopposed to be cleaning his area.

Does anybody know why he is agressive, or am i incorrect in thinking that he should be placid.
 

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they can be terretorial and they will try to eat anythink they think they can fit in there mouth.
 
pictus cats are territorial catfish, but at the same time can be very sociable. my group of four don't seem to bother anything else but do often squabble amongst each other, they will and do eat small fish, even fast ones. as long as you keep them with medium sized placid to mildly territorial/aggressive fish you should be fine.

Dave
 
Liam50 said:
what would you guys say the minimum tank requirement is for a group of four?
Click to expand...


it depends, when u have a group of four u need a lot of "floor space" for them to swim around as they need a good amount of room, thats no problem if u have lets say a 150 gal tank as generally those have a large enough base. however if you dont want to go that big u cold try a breeder tank as those tend to be a lot wider with less height.
 
mr130gallon said:
I bought a baby (2.5 inch) pictus catfish about 2 weeks ago.

When i read about them i always read that they are placid, and im pretty sure that means peacefull, yet my pictus is semi agressive, he has a little area where he hangs around and feeds, its nice and shady, the plants privide shelter and the bogwood also does, but my rosy 1.5 inch rosy barbs go there to feed and hang out, but the pictus chases them away occasionally biting their fins. He also seems to be agressive to my bristlenose catfish, which are sopposed to be cleaning his area.

Does anybody know why he is agressive, or am i incorrect in thinking that he should be placid.
Click to expand...
 
i have kept fish for many years and recently bought two gorgeous pictus cats mine so far are great they need to be with larger fish or they will attack smaller fish. they are fasinating to watch my two are so lively especially at feeding time.
 
MY Pictus is very aggressive, I never took this as odd considering most catfish are predatory and naturally hunters. :/ Sounds pretty average to me.
 
you need at least four, if you have one it will be agressive, two they will fight, i had a pair they fought to the death, three worked ok, but fish would go missing esp during the night, keep them will larger more agressive fish and in a group as large as you can house. di
 
It seems I'm the exception but I've had a pictus on it's own for 4 years or so in one of my tanks and it seems to co-exist happily with the group of silver tetras I have in there, which I'm fairly sure could fit in it's mouth with ease.

My lfs warned me when I bought a pair (the 1st died after a day and I never bothered to replace it) that they may well eat the tetras (everything else in the tank is bigger) but I've not had any problems.

I'm probably doing ok because the pictus doesn't occupy any space that the other fish use (other than the plecs which are large)
 
dhracer said:
It seems I'm the exception but I've had a pictus on it's own for 4 years or so in one of my tanks and it seems to co-exist happily with the group of silver tetras I have in there, which I'm fairly sure could fit in it's mouth with ease.

My lfs warned me when I bought a pair (the 1st died after a day and I never bothered to replace it) that they may well eat the tetras (everything else in the tank is bigger) but I've not had any problems.

I'm probably doing ok because the pictus doesn't occupy any space that the other fish use (other than the plecs which are large)
Click to expand...

your experience is not a exceptional as you think. quite a few of us have experience of single pictus keeping. usually through inexperience, when starting to stock our tanks. i totally recognise your experience.

even so, i must reiterate the fact that they should only be kept in groups.
 
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