Poorly Pictus (s)

fishyfingers1276

New Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2008
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Why can`t I keep Pictus catfish......arrrrrrgggggg!!!!

I bought 3 of these a couple of months back and they were fine for a while but I came home from work one day to find 2 of them dead and the other one just making a pathetic effort to bobble (slowly) about. I assumed they had been fighting and bought two more - which didnt last two days before the same result.......disaster!!

I did notice when they were in there that my tiger barbs were chewing their barbels so I got rid of them back to the shop I bought them from. I also took every other bullying possibility back to the shop - leaving my tank with just my three tiger plecs (about 8-9cm each) and a handful of danios. I then had the water checked, nitrate, ammonia and ph were all spot on.

Ah, I thought now I`m safe!! I bought 2 more pictus cats - and the same cycle happens again. After a day their mouth and underside is red and looks raw, after another 12 hours or so their fins are looking battered and barbels are about a third of the original length, shorly after this they die. Also they don`t eat anything. I have nothing to attack them (the plecs just ignore them), and danios are about as harmless as fish get. As I said my water is fine so what am I doing wrong?? There is nothing sharp in the tank, I have a sand/gravel mixture as a substrate, and there are loads of hiding places / caves as I have several big pieces of bogwood.

I bought my tank so that I could keep these fish, and this is getting very frustrating. If anybody could shed some light on this I would be very very grateful!! It was suggested the tank had a bacterial problem that only effects this type of fish?? How would that be determined and solved??

Sorry I can`t add a photo of the tank I can`t get the camera software to work.

Oh, it`s a 190L corner tank running at a steady 27degrees!!
Regards and thanks in anticipation.....Kevin
 
i have kept multiple pictus before and iv never had a problem, i am tempted to say that it is your plecos attacking them dues to the size difference, but i have never kept a pleco so that may be incorrect, but picus are a bottom fish and so are plecs, and in a tank that size your gonna run out of territory space really fast so i would say one will have to go
 
I would agree with the possibility of a bacterial infection, but 12 hours is pretty rapid so that may not be it. Pictus are generally hardy but more sensitive than other fish to nitrates. They are also scaleless , but if I remember correctly so are plecos. That's a tough call. I would just focus on getting your nitrates to zero, and if theyre at zero, we could do with some pictures if you get your camera to work.
 
I would agree with the possibility of a bacterial infection, but 12 hours is pretty rapid so that may not be it. Pictus are generally hardy but more sensitive than other fish to nitrates. They are also scaleless , but if I remember correctly so are plecos. That's a tough call. I would just focus on getting your nitrates to zero, and if theyre at zero, we could do with some pictures if you get your camera to work.
 
Finally got to the bottom of this problem (for want of a better way of putting it....read on!!)

The very helpful guys in the aquatic shop at my local garden centre solved the problem, and it was all due to me having a thick layer of sand at the bottom of my tank. Poisonous bacteria / gases were building up at the very bottom, and whenever I moved anything or it was disturbed, my pictus` were suffering. My plecs were fine because they`re too daft to churn up the sand.

So, at the weekend just gone I completely emptied my tank (kept 50% of the original water), got rid of the sand and replaced it with some fine gravel. I bought 2 more pictus cats (these are only babies about 4cm but very cute!!) and they have lived for three days sofar which has been a miracle in my tank up until now!!

So far so good.............
 

Most reactions

Back
Top