Pictus Cats Overeating?

roughbuckincwgrl · Post by **roughbuckincwgrl** » 23 Aug 2006, 05:21

I have two pictus cats that are about 6-7" in my 55g tank and over the last year everytime I add new fish they seem to disappear at night. These are not small fish I have ut in graumis and large barbs. So recently finally being fed up I bought 3 bala sharks that are about 2-3" and put them in the tank, but I also added 12 rosy minnows at the same time. they all seemed fine at first but by the end of the week all the rosys were gone, not that I minded of course. So the next week when I went they were out of the rosys so I bought 10 feeder goldfish, they disappeared in about 3 days. I stopped putting this extra diet in and just recently noticed that my biggest bala had scales missing on his side and most of his head, the only thing I can figure is that the cat tried to eat it. I went to the pet store and bought 12 rosy that morning, the next day they were completely gone.

My question is it common for pictus to go after large prey like this? And can they eat so much that they will kill themselfs or will they stop before then?

I was also wondering what you feed you pictus because before the live food I was just feeding tropical flakes and goldfish pellets.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 23 Aug 2006, 10:42

Pictus cats are definitely partly predatory, but they will happily take just about any meaty food, so I don't see why you should need to feed them on live-foods.

I feed mine on the same diet as the rest of the tank companions, which is mainly Tetra Prima (I think it's called Tetra Bits in the US), which is sinking granule with fairly high protein content (from memory 45% protein), with additions of frozen and live bloodworm, other various frozen foods. They also sometimes manage to eat one of the algae wafers from the pleco's.

Any sinking, meaty pellet/granule type food that doesn't expand too much would be a good food for these fish. Flake is fine too, but most likely your bala sharks will get to it first, and they are pretty intense feeders too as far as I understand [never kept them myself].

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Mats

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 23 Aug 2006, 17:39

I wonder if they are pictus cats when I look at the size of your specimen. They shouldn't be getting that large.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 23 Aug 2006, 17:50

I think that the size listed in Cat-eLog (which is greater than the size in fishbase by 1cm + tail as fishbase lists 11cm TL!) is still a bit short. I have one that I'm pretty sure is beyond 12cm SL, and a good 15-17cm (6.0"-6.7") TL, and I'm pretty darn sure that it's a really what everyone would call Pimelodus pictus.

And I'd be very surprised if the above measures are intended to be standard length... Most people that know what standard length is will make sure that it's clear which of TL or SL they are using.

I should have measured it properly when I took it out of the tank the other day [to move the tank], but since I was quite busy just trying to catch all forty or so fish in the tank and move them to the their new location a few hundred meters up the road, I didn't think about measuring it at that point...

Catching a pictus cat in a heavily decorated tank isn't fun - even fairly sluggish bristlenoses take a whole lot of "undecorating" before you can get them [although you can sometimes bait them with a bit of vegetable and catch them whilst eating - doesn't work on the very hyper P. pictus tho'].

I have a photo of this fish (or one of it's siblings) that I can post if you want to see what it looks like...

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Mats

roughbuckincwgrl · Post by **roughbuckincwgrl** » 23 Aug 2006, 18:16

I am pretty sure thats what they are. I bought them at a local store when they were probably about 2" long and thats what the tag called them. Another question I have is my biggest pictus has turned somewhat irredesent and I was wondering what could cause that.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 23 Aug 2006, 21:43

Fair enough. I was just combining the size with the feeding habits. I wasn't aware of P. pictus eating goldfish and I wonder how small these feeders were?
As far as I know pictus go very well on flakes, pellets and frozen foods.
BTW: I don't mind you feeding goldfish to your pictus, but pls be aware of their (often) poor quality, which may cause health problems to your fish.

roughbuckincwgrl · Post by **roughbuckincwgrl** » 24 Aug 2006, 04:58

Yeah after I put the goldfish in there (they were about the size of almonds) I didn't like them in there so I took them out that night but the cats had eaten about 5 of them. They are pretty voracious. When I feed in my tank they come up to the top and will kind of skim across the top and eat the flake food so I know they are getting enough I just think they like the hunt of the little minnows.

Anyone have any ideas about the irredecent coloring?

suezbele · Post by **suezbele** » 25 Aug 2006, 03:43

i suspect you may have a pimelodus blochii, instead of a pictus cat.