Pictus Catfish

[chico]

So i went to the lfs today to pickup some corys for my new 60 gallon aquarium that just finished cycling and saw a few very active Pictus catfish. Well i got the corys home and they are very happy in their new home, but i've been reading up on the Pictus catfish and i see a lot of different info. Been looking though books and different websites and some say they are aggressive some say their placid or fine for my community tank. Also i have also seen a few books say they get to be 6'' and some websites show 12''. So far in my tank i have 6 cory cats, 2 large SAE, 1 Brislenose pleco, and 10 Bloodfin tetra. So i just wanted to see what experience other people have had with them and wanted to make sure they wouldn't make lunch out of my other fish when it they larger.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Pictus cats seem to have a lot of misleading information out there. First off, you won't find any 12" monsters, that I can assure you. How large the real Pictus cats will get will depend greatly on where they were collected, or at least where the breeding stock for the farms was collected. If collected in Peru, as most of the specimens in the big box stores are, then you are looking at fish that will max out at about 5". These fish are very active and may find the smaller Bloodfins a nice snack. I wouldn't recommend them for a small community, although if the fish are of sufficient size, like Rainbows, then they would be fine. They don't do well with docile species because they are so active. These fish act like they are on caffeine much of the time, and they are also quite nocturnal. Their active behavior, combined with their nocturnal nature makes for a good deal of stress on more placid species in the tank.
Hope this helps.

BTW, I wouldn't recommend them for your setup.

[Northernguy]

They are beautiful fish but they are meant for a community tank with bigger fish.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fish/pictuscatfish.php
They will eat yours once they are big enough.
I had one in with my oscars for a while.He used to bump and startle the oscars at night all the time.I rehomed it. They also belong in schools.
If you had a different stocking they would go great in a tank that size.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Ray, don't point people to that profile, it's as inaccurate as most of the others on the net. lol

[Northernguy]

12" is a little much but the rest of the info is good.
They are aggressive to smaller fish when they are full grown.It had no fear of the oscars.
Mine ate flakes,pellets and wafers.
Set up sounds right as well.

Here is an accurate profile.
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile70.html

[chico]

Thanks for the fast responses. I won't get them that is what I was thinking, but just wanted to get other peoples thoughts. That is why i love this site been tons of help getting started out with my tanks.

[Pleco380]

Mine hid and when they did come out they got aggressive. They get fairly large and are very active so a tank that size is a bit small because of the fact that they love to have swimming space. They can be ruthless to smaller fish and even pick on other catfish in my experience. They're really cool, but I'm starting to wonder about keeping mine because they've already killed 2 fish suddenly last week. They can be unpredictable. It's probably a good choice not to get them for your tank.