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I went to buy some pictus catfish yesterday from Wal-Mart. I told the assistant that I wanted two of them. He carefully got one of them out. Then he got the other one in the net. Its spike in its fin was caught in the net. All he did was say "Thats what i hate about catfish" And he didn't seem to care about the poor fish. He grabbed the fin of the small young catfish and pulled as hard as he could. After a few hard yanks it came off. I don't know it its spike was still stuck in the net or anything. Will it be ok? I think that its alrght. It has both fins and i think its swimming ok, But will this be a problem in the future? They now live in a 40g tank, well planted, with many fish that won't harm them. I just wanted to know if it will be ok.

As you don't have a picture it's difficult to say whether it's okay or not. What I don't understand is that you didn't ask for another specimen or that a suggestion of this kind was made to you by the shop assistant.
You'd better avoid shops like that.

I know that I should have said somthing. I was thinking about it,but the man getting them seemed to be pretty mad since he had to catch such fast fish. I think that its ok. I named him Leo (short for leopard) because of the spots all over him.

I had one get stuck in a net a while back, and I had to cut part of the pectoral fin to cut it off. When I moved the fish again a couple of weeks back, I couldn't tell which one had the shorter pectoral fin... It's most likely that the net got broken before the fish got damaged anyways - but as Marc says, it's impossible to say for sure without photo.

They are NOT easy to catch with a net - much better to use a piece of pipe or plastic tub to catch them, really...

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Mats

Should all pictus ( and many other) cats be like this? I caught 2 4 inch pictus with a net, and nothing happened, no snagging or anything. Explain?

pictus_man_77 wrote:Should all pictus ( and many other) cats be like this? I caught 2 4 inch pictus with a net, and nothing happened, no snagging or anything. Explain?

It depends on several things, one of which is what kind of mesh the net consists of. A fine mesh is less likely to snag the fins of the fish.

The reason they get caught in the net is that they have small barbs on the pectoral and dorsal fins, and if the fins poke through the mesh in the net, it may get stuck.

I caught all but one of my pictus cats without them getting (seriously) caught in the net, but the last one got so stuck that it was necessary to "amputate" a bit of one of the pectoral fins (and cut several holes in the net)... So it may just be that you were lucky!

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Mats

Catching pictus without a net is safer but not very easy. They usually untangle themselves from nets if you are patient. As Matt said, fine mesh seems safer than coarse netting. Safe too say than tens of thousands are caught annually without significant mortality.

yeah. Its doing great so far. I am pretty sure that its ok. I still can't tell them apart, and I don't see anything wrong with any of them. I shoud get one more. One of them is the ruler of the cave. They are about 2 inches each, and i havent seen my bumblebee catfish in a few days. It was just a little smaller than both of the pictus. Can the pictus kill or eat a bumblebee catfish? All of my fish seem to get aliog well, but I just havent seen the b-b catfish since the day after I got the pictus.

I'm not sure if there is such a thing as too many pictus cats, they seem very gregarious. You are lucky to have ever seen your bumblebee cat. Once they go into the tank they usually just disappear. I think the bumblebee cat is safe just reclusive by nature. That's what is so nice about pictus, they are always crusing about tirelessly.

catfishrule wrote:I shoud get one more. One of them is the ruler of the cave

It's good to read that all goes well. Three is better indeed. Thus the aggression can be spread and unwanted situations in which the same fish is always bullied are avoided.
I'm convinced P. pictus won't eat bumble bees (Microglanis spp.). Your bumble bee must probably get used to the tireless cruising and being tapped upon by large barbels

I have now seen the bumblebee catfish 2 times after i put the pictus in. It would peek out and then disappear a few seconds later. The pictus have pretty much taken over the cave by now.

Catch them with a pond lilly basket,without the pond lilly in it obviously, you know the ones that are square and made of hard plastic, and that goes for doradids too, I use a washing basket to catch my megalodoras.