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Sorry to revive an old thread, btu i had a question about pictus and rather than start a new topic i figured id post in an old one. Ive done a search and found a lot of people suggesting getting a shoal of pictus, and ive also seen people saying dont keep them with barbs. May i ask why not to keep them with barbs? and why is it that the catfish definition on this site about the pictus says they go well with barbs and dont suffer from being kept singly? am i missing something drastic here? i dont want to buy one if hes going to be sad! Sam

Sam,

I decided to split your thread, as it's not particularly related to the other one.

I don't think keeping them singly is a TERRIBLE idea, but it's not great either - they do much better if you have a larger group of them - more active, and you get to see them interact from time to time.

I kept mine together with Rosy Barbs with no apparent ill effects. It would probably depend much on WHICH barbs.

You shouldn't keep them with any tetras or other small diurnal fish that are small enough to fit in their mouth.

--
Mats

Larger active fish such as tetras, most barbs and gouramis.
They can also be kept in groups but do not suffer from being kept singly.

The above comes from the data sheet and I have to agree with you that it is not quite correct. I would never keep one single specimen. It won't be happy by itself, which may eventually lead to its death. A group of 5 (or more) will do.

The above says most barbs, so there is a restriction. Nevertheless ime almost all barbs are nippers and especially fond of long fins and in this case long barbels. Not recommended!

The data sheet information should be adapted imo.

Marc van Arc wrote:The data sheet information should be adapted imo.

I've just done so.

Yes, I guess things like Tiger barbs would definitely find the barbels irresistable. Rosy barbs that I stated are very friendly type of barbs, so they are probably one of the best choices.

--
Mats

A lot of barbs are a bit "nippy" but additionally some which are seen in the community sections of a lfs get huge like spanner barbs (t-bar barbs). Clearly we'd want the barbs to be big enough not to be a potential meal but not to big so big that they'd be too boisterous for the pictus.

We currently have 6 cherry barbs which are happy little chappies (and chapesses) that will swim around together getting up to all sorts of antics, and we have even got them feeding from our fingers at the start of each feeding session. They seem inquisitive as to antena (our cameroon armoured shrimp shakes his around and they all whiz off somewhere else) so i figure based on that they would be ok?

I noticed it mentioned they may annoy angelfish? is this because the angelfish get "woken up" in the night, or is there more o it than that?

barbs are predated by piscivorous fishes, with long, extended fins. In order to be as big a nuisiance as possible to these predators, they bite in these fins - and all such fins are considered belonging to predators

This kind of behaviour is called mobbing (a mob used as verb) and firs described among birds - raven and related

the barbs will continue this kind of behaviour untill the predator is gone - in case of in a tank, gone to fish heaven

Just an example of problems which can arise when fishes from different areas are just combined.

sixftsam wrote:I noticed it mentioned they may annoy angelfish? is this because the angelfish get "woken up" in the night

Correct. Angels don't like "jump starts". Not only catfish whiskers will startle them; even lights on and lights out have the same effect......