PlanetCatfish.com

Im thinking of picking up a small school of pictus but the only places that carry them around here are chain FSs.
Is there any reall difference in the fish youd get from a reputable dealer and the ones from Wal-mart or Petsmart?
Anything I should look for when choosing them?

Thanks,
Sam

Having never been to wal mart or pets mart. I can't really say but the main thing to do when buying from anywhere is to quarantine the fish for atleast 2weeks IME.

Chances are the larger chains import themselves and so the fish will have had less transport stress than smaller shops hwo buy off other shops.

As long as you are happy that the conditions the fish are in when buying are good. I can't see a problem.

I have noticed a HUGE difference in the health of pictus from place to place....

Everytime I go to WalMart, I check in on their fish and the pictus almost always have ICH. I feel so bad for them I almost want to bring some med with me..!!

At PetsMart, I always check them out, and they are always so skinny. And on top of that, I've notcied that at PetsMart their barbels are almost "lifeless"... they look like a piece of spaghetti flopping in the water... Their barbels should not be flimsly like this at all.

I have a great privately owned and operated fish store nearby that always carries the pictus or the 4-line cats and they are always in excellent condition.

I would recommend that you go to the store and, if you get lucky and find that every pictus in the tank is extremely healthy... then buy a few, but if their barbels are lifeless (or broken off altogether) then don't even try it b/c pictus, in my opinion, are very hard to "revive" once they're ill.

The only fish I have ever bought from WalMart is albino tiger barbs... and they are so hardy that I have never had a problem with them. The only reason I bought them there was a similar situation to yours.. nobody else had them!

Hope this helps.. with the pictus I think your better off waiting for healthy ones... they're worth the wait though.. they're great fish.... Make sure you get atleast 4 or 5 or you might have problems like I did with one being overly aggressive towards the other.

Thanks guys/gals!

So is health basically the only thing to worry about?
Are all pictus wild caught or are there Asian farms that have succeeded in spawning them?
No hybrids or tainted stock out there right?

So is health basically the only thing to worry about?

Yes i would say health is the main objective.

Are all pictus wild caught or are there Asian farms
that have succeeded in spawning them?

Wild AFAIK

No hybrids or tainted stock out there right?

No thank god.

It's important to QT " quarantine" any fishes u buy no matte who they came from and when you QT it's recommended to QT in a different place because of air-brone dieases that can pass thru. the air but then i bet everyone here knows that but jus something to think about for the beginners