fishyfingers1276
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- Joined
- Jul 10, 2008
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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 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