Need help! Pictus Catfish

[aznf0o]

Hello,

I am new to this forum but i have a few questions regarding my pictus. I recently purchased a new 50 gallon tank and have been cycling it for 8 days. I have tried to speed up the process by adding stress-zyme and currently have 6 zebra danios and 1 pleco in it. They all seem to be doing fine and all of them have survived the first few days of cycling and are eating well.

However, I have added my pictus yesterday and he seems to be swimming up and down rapidly in 1 spot of the tank. This seems to be normal due to the stress of going into a new tank. I was careful in adding it by letting it adjust to temperature and water. I woke up this morning and now he is swimming near the intake of my filter. He isn't in a panicked mood any more but he just swims slowly up and down the filter tube. I dropped a food tablet but it didn't eat it. Instead my zebras and pleco decided to eat it. I might have made the mistkae of adding the pictus too soon. Is this normal behaviour for a pictus? It seems to ignore the fact that I have placed many caves for it to hide.

Any advice would help. Thanks.

[Marc van Arc]

Have a look at this:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=18476

[courtnee]

yes this is normal stressing behavior and as they settle in they stop.

However, those are not hardy fish to make it through a cycle IMHO. Make sure to keep tabs on your water everyday or you may lose your fish. Plecos are pooping machines and the ammonia and nitrItes will spike before you know it in your tank.

Do you have your other tank still going? If anything else I would suggest using your other tank to house the fish as your new larger tank cycles. It is a lot less work not having fish in a toxic tank as it cycles and having to worry about their health. Cycling fishless is easier IMHO.

People say pictus are hardy, but I disagree with that. I own 4 and have seen how touchy they can be. They stress pretty easy.