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Hi. New to the forum... I have four Pictus cats in my 72G tank, and recenty all of them started to fight... I wouldnt necessarily call it fighting... but once all said and done 2 of them are now under the same rock, and somehow they cleared all sand out of that area, and they wont let ANYTHING else in there (I have 4 baby (2") peacock males also in the tank)... I have not noticed any eggs or anything, so I was wondering what their breeding habits are... Someone told me that Pictus will not breed in captivity, where others have said Yes they will... Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

I've never heard of pictuses breeding in captivity, but I live in hope

If your cats are spawning then there are plenty of people here who would love to know everything about your water conditions, how old your cats are, what you feed them, etc..

Good luck.

Well, I dont know if they are, they just seem to be behaving quite odd, like they might be... I've no experience in Catfish ... we breed malawi peacocks only This woudl be a first...

As of now, though... Heres the conditions:
Water Temp : 78F
pH : 7.6-7.8
Food ; New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula ;)

Woah... why the ***'s for Cichlid? can you not say Cichlid on here? lol

Any updates?

I know whenever I kept pictus cats in groups they did shoal but didnt like to be very close to each other so maybe this could be breeding behavour.I had 2 that would get quite close and do a shaking movement with their mouths open wide but I presumed it was 2 males sparring.

Good luck!

P. pictus are migatory fish , swimming a great distance over a years migration . This is the reason
for their so called nervousness, the migration never stops.
At the peak of the up river migration (high water) is the spawning season. Much like their larger
cousins in the big river.
You will find that the females are easy to condiction,and will hold eggs for a long peroid of time.
Most people don't think much about the males, But in my work I have found the males are often
the problem, and the reason spawning doesn't happen. With proper food females will develop
eggs over a peroid of time, and hold them until things are right. Males on the other hand can
load up with sperm in a matter of days or even hours. But it takes a difinite trigger. This the
biggest problem I have found with P. pictus. ( I haven't found the trigger yet)

I seriously doubt if this fish can be spawned without duplicating this migration, as it is usely part
of the condictioning process. This can be done with a donut type raceway ,with running water.
Although I think that the triggering mechanismon on a lot of miratory fish is the change in water
Condictions as they reach their spawning grounds, or is a response to the hormones released by
the food fish they are following or maybe just traveling with.

I have followed these migrations up and down the rivers ,but at the time did not have the equip-
ment to determine what the trigger could be. Maybe next time.

This would a good project for some of you younger guys on your dream trips to S. A.

Arius seemanni is migrating species too. Ii remember from the catfish mailing list that someone had bred it in common aquarium in USA. Anyone knows exact details?

Anyone knows exact details?

Try looking in the Cat-eLog.

Hi
I also have had the same thing, 3 Pictus, two behaving strangely and hiding under the same rock no sign of eggs yet but you never know.
If anything changes I'll post here!