The odd pictus scrap....

[Fawke]

Hello there,

Just a quick one really.....

As my kribs have bred/are breeding (both) my pictus have been reduced to around 2/3's of my 35ukgal tank and are finding themselves bumping into on another alot more....

This never happening b4 my kribs bred, naturally, they have pretty much free roam of the tank...

Now they are closer together they seem to be scrapping a fair amount more....
Now my thoughts were that they loosly shoal and are vaguely terratorial, but, they are getting quite nasty at times...

2 will end up in a ball of barbals, and what looks like trying to rub their dorsal fin on one another, no mouth attacks at all??
This weird scrapping is often a noisy affair, with clicking and strange noises coming from them........

Now i have noticed one of my pictus barbels has become curly (IE dead?) and im a little worried, although they all seem fine and in good nick and are feeding without problem....

The scrapping generally occurs after a water change (once a week) as they seem to go a bit awall, naturally, during this......

Bottom line...... due to the kribs breeding and swimming space reduced.... is 4 pim pictus too much for my 35ukgal...... and why are they acting this way???

Sorry to bang on......

Cheers

 

[CFC]

The curled whiskers is a sign of stress or poor water quality, in this case most likely the stress of being cramped into 2/3 of the available space. As you have noticed pictus cats only loosely school and like to have their own small territory, if this space is invaded fights are the result. Normally your tank would be fine for 4 pictus cats but with the breeding cichlids cutting the space down what they are left with is the equivilent of a 20g. My advise would be to purchase a small tank such as a 18x12x12 for the kribs and let the pictus re affirm their territories.