Pictus Catfish Friend or Foe?

[Brody3665]

I was all ready to buy one today and the person at the LFS stated that they are predatory (as he put it) and would eat my smaller fish such as neons for dinner. I have heard that they are peaceful also. SOOO Just looking for some input to put the decision to rest...

Thanks

 

[Chill]

They will prey on smaller fish after lights out. Neons are like little psychedelic pictus treats.

 

[IvannaFish]

DO NOT use a net to move them ever...they will get stuck in the mesh and you will never get it out..alive at least!!

 

[Yoemen]

hmm

Well, they are definitely cool fish to watch, but they will devour your neons if they are little.

I have two 4 inch leopard spotted pictus in my aquarium with my red finned shark and 2 stripped raphaels and have no trouble at all. They seem to annoy the raphs when they are hiding and the pictus come swimming by all excited, but other then that they are all fine. Though they sometimes seem to get lost staring at their own reflection for lengthy amounts of time. Most catfish are predatory though, if their mouth is big enough to get the fish. I have seen Raphs eat baby neons before and they are definitely a scavenger fish.

 

[willy:-)]

A fish can be PEACEFUL but the rule of nature is any fish that can fit into antother fishes mouth will end up there. Your lfs was correct, they eat little fish and are nice to big fish

 

[Bigbob55]

I have a pictus with Neons in a 55G, and he doesn't even bother them at all.

As long as you keep the pictus well fed, he shouldn't bother other fish, but they are very active swimmers, very very active. When my pictus was a "baby" he would actually eat algea, I think. the corner of the tank he stayed in was always algea-free. He gets very excited when you put food in, and since I keep him well fed he hasn't touched the neons, and he hasn't harmed my snails either. Although I suspect he has been eating some smaller ghost shrimp, either that or they are just hiding.

And yes, I can second the net thing! I moved my pictus with a net and he got stuck! I ended up cutting the net with sciccors to get him out, and he seems fine now, but was a little freaked out for about a day, but now he's excited to be in a 55G instead of a 10G!

 

[long2534]

i have seen my foot long common pleco break a feeder fishes back into an S shape also he is known to pick off weaker fish and I wake up to him sucking the remains of a scaleless fish at the bottom of the tank. ravenous beast but hes nice and takes algae wafers from my hands and is conditioned to feed at any time not just night

maybe all of the catfish family are simply opportunity feeders.

 

[ddayton21]

i used to have a pictus with neons and after they all dissapeared i decided to keep some larger species with my cat

 

[Yoemen]

heh

Just a little advice--Most Cats that have long pronounced "whiskers" are predatory in nature.

Prime example for those who do a lot of freshwater fishing-Yellow cats have the much more pronounced whiskers then blues or channel cats and are also far more likely to go after live prey rather then eat already dead things.

I am certain you can keep them full and they will be far less likely to eat your other fish, but that is something I remember from some of my aquatic biology classes in college.

 

[Bigbob55]

Well.... I originally had 10 Neon tetra's with my pictus cat, and last weekend I could only count 9, and now I'm only counting 7........ so......

Looks like the pictus cat is eating them, eventhough I overfeed him (in an effort to make him stop eating the tetra's!)

Its just weird that the tetra's don't seem to be afraid of him, and he doesn't seem aggressive towards them.