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Hi guys

I am new to aquariums and have just set up my first tank. I have two dwarf gurami, 6 red eye tetra, two silver sharks and have just introduced two pictus. I have a hollow log in there which provides a nice long cave for them to hide outbut they just seem to swim in circles up the side of my pump. Is there anything i can do to get them in the cave or will i just have to wait for them to find it?

some advice would be great.

If they are newly introduced, you should probably wait a bit. However, the number 2 of any non-pair-bonding fish is a bad number. In pictus cats, it's generally better to have a half-dozen or so (subject to tank-size obviously, they do best in a nice, large tank of at least 4ft x 1.5-2ft base...)

The reason two is a bad number is that one of them will be the dominant fish, and the other will then be the one being bullied by the dominant one. In a larger group, the dominant fish will spend it's time split between several of the non-dominant fish, and the bullying is less "concentrated".

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Mats

Thanks for the reply Mats, I might pick up two more then.

I have another question. I have got some frozen bloodworm and pellets. I put a bloodworm block in but the cats didnt seem to budge and the other fish seemed to get most of it. Will i have to wait for them to settle before they start feeding prop. As long as i keep putting it in for them they will soon start eating?

As Mats has suggested it's much better to keep a group of pictus because 2 pictus will fight.
I keep 5 pictus in a tank with lot's of wood and slate giving them plenty of place's to use as a retreat,but still leave plenty of open space for swimming.
They are also very active and greedy when ever any food is put in the tank so your's might have to settle in,you could try feeding them some tetra prima,this is a favourite food of my pictus.

Tip - defrost your frozen bloodworm before adding to the tank.

I put frozen food in a shallow glass jar with a small amount of tank water, place it on top of the tank to gently melt, then put into a net a gently flush under the cold tap.

The reason being I don't want to add to the tank the liquid that the bloodworm is frozen in. Who knows what its chemistry is.....

wrasse wrote:The reason being I don't want to add to the tank the liquid that the bloodworm is frozen in. Who knows what its chemistry is.....

Chemistry, I wouldn't worry about it [unless it's something REALLY toxic, like cyanide or strychnine], the volume of a few cubes of blood-worm will be minuscule. Because I am like I am, and like details, I just measured the "blister" in a pack of frozen food: 16 x 16 x 14mm = 3584 mm3 = 3.584 cm3 = 0.003584 liter. So if you add that to a 100 liter tank [for arguments sake]. If we take ALL of the content, that's 35ppm of the tanks volume. Of course, some of that is blood worm or whatever the food is, so that's what you MEANT to put in there [and that would still be there after the rinse, one would hope at least].

I do agree that there may be biological pollution in/around the food - e.g. if it's been defrosted and refrozen again on the way to the shop or not frozen properly in the production. I'm not entirely sure that it will make much difference to rinse the food to improve that either. I've never heard anyone suggesting that chicken that isn't treated/cooked correctly would be made better by rinsing it, which would be the corresponding action in a human consumption.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do what you are doing, I'm just suggesting that you may consider whether it's actually much point to it.

Defrosting before feeding to greedy fish like pictus: Absolutely, great suggestion, as the last thing you want is the fish could swallow a large portion of frozen food and get "internal frost-bite" or simply cool down to unhealthy levels.

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Mats

If you run your fingers through a defrosted cube of bloodworm, it feels 'soapy'.
If you buy raw prawns from the supermarket and wash them, the water bubbles up like soap. My brother, a chef, says these prawns (and other shellfish) are coated with a preservative.
I for one, won't stop defrosting and rinsing these foods.
And if for instance, you are trying to breed 'difficult' fish, this is the kind of action that IMO makes a difference.

MatsP wrote:I've never heard anyone suggesting that chicken that isn't treated/cooked correctly would be made better by rinsing it, which would be the corresponding action in a human consumption.

And I doubt you will EVER hear anyone suggesting that.....
And I'm afraid I don't think its the same thing at all.