Poorly Pictus (s)

[fishyfingers1276]

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

 

[LetsBeFriends]

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

 

[Fishy412]

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.

 

[fishyfingers1276]

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.

 

[fishyfingers1276]

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.............