Lazy Picus

Absolutely, Pictus are a noctournal hunter that are fairly skittish in the daylight. if they have a comfortable hiding place they will use it while the lights are on, if they don't have a comfortable hiding place they will remain fairly stressed all the time.
Dave

Sounds normal to me.

I have 3 in my 210G the do not move all day long. There is a large piece of driftwood they get under out of the light and just stay put all day.

However once the room goes completely dark they are out and about. I havent really found a good way to view them but have caught them on the prowl when I have turned the room lights on during the late night.

I got a couple of spotted pictus cats and they are quite the addition to my 10g tank. The Walmart told me they were Bala Sharks...what did I know? I took them at their word and after looking them up...they were not bala's and then 4 hours of internet searching, I discovered they were catfish....Not disappointed though...cause I love there energy and after putting in a artificial cave..they dissappeared on me....so did a few tetras 4/6 ... yet now that i know they love hunt ....even better...
research is always important

A 10 gallon is way too small for pictus cats regardless of their size. They get to be around 6 inches in length and need much more room to swim because of their (nighttime) activity. Try and get them to a bigger tank as soon as you can.

My experience with Spotted Pictus is you need at least three if you want to see them during the day. They are schooling fish and a solitary specimen will hide in daylight. In groups they are much more active. Of course to house a group you need a large tank.

One thing you should be aware of is they have sharp pectoral fins and netting them, often results in them becoming entangled in the net, so you need to be careful when catching these fish. If you use a fine mesh net you could have problems. I ussualy try to catch them in a solid container.

I haven’t really seen the schooling behavior with my 3. If anything they seem very territorial to me. They tend to each pick a spot in the tank out of the light and if they even see each other one will swim over and shoo the other away.

I've done a quick search to prove or disprove my comment that they are schooling fish. The results were inconclusive. This comment from their profile on Badman's Tropical Fish seems true to me: "Preferring to be kept in schools when young, they tend to form smaller groups when mature. When kept in small groups this nocturnal fish will be seen out and around more often during the daylight hours. ", but there was no real consensus of opinion on the Net.

From my own experience I know the ones I have kept have been much more active during the day when kept in groups of three. The first one I purchased was always hiding,the guy in the LFS suggested I put two more in and the diffrence was unbelievable. Very active, swimming together and chasing each other all over the tank.

Easily my favorite fish. Just be careful when netting them. Also be careful when feeding them live fish. They seem to be fairly subsceptible to ich and you want to be careful when introducing untreated feeders that you don't introduce ich into the water.

i have 2 incandesant sharks that just lay there then all of a suden they jolt around then lay down again is that normal :help: