Pictus catfish

Pictus fish is a beautiful fish for fish lovers. While it can be difficult for novice keepers to keep him healthy, his unique characteristics make it worthwhile.

Our complete Pictus Catfish care guide covers everything you need to know, including its size, care guide, ideal tank mates and conditions, dietary requirements, and much more.

Let’s first briefly overview the species before going into details.

It was first described by Franz Steindachner, an Austrian zoologist, in 1876 and found in South America’s warm rivers. Their unmistakable white body is highlighted with black spots and enormous barbels extending to their caudal fin. You will notice that this is a very active and fast fish and does well in large aquariums (tanks over 100 gallons).

Do not use a regular fishing net, as they may get their fins stuck, which can cause significant damage.

Appearance of the Pictus catfish

This catfish is silver in color with lots of black spots. It has clear fins and white barbels. One of the most distinctive features of the Pictus catfish is its “whiskers.” They are actually called barrels, and all catfish have them. These barbels can reach all the way to the tail fin. In the wild, catfish use their barbels to navigate through muddy waters.

The Pictus has a forked tail and a large, downturned mouth like most catfish.

The differences between males and females are incredibly slight, with females being slightly larger and rounder when they reach sexual maturity.

Finally, they are often confused with Angelicus Catfish. Angelicus Catfish are actually a separate species of upside-down catfish and tend to have much shorter barbels.

Habitat and Tank Requirements for Pictus Catfish

As always, we recommend that your aquarium matches your species’ natural conditions as closely as possible.

Pictus are found in warm rivers and streams of South America; usually in sandy riverbeds.

So, to start with, you need to use a sandy substrate. You should also try to mimic the flow of river water, so use a good-quality hang-on filter. This will create an adequate amount of current to keep your catfish healthy. The filtration system is crucial for Pictus catfish as they create a lot of waste. So, a good amount of filtration helps to keep the water parameters stable as they are extremely sensitive to nitrates.

Next up are plants and ornaments. Since this catfish is primarily nocturnal, its tank should be dimly lit. Additionally, you can include live plants such as Hornwort and Java Moss due to their low light conditions.

Tank conditions

You will find Pictus Catfish in schools in the wild, so remember this when planning your aquarium. If you plan on keeping a school, you should have at least a 150-gallon tank; this will support 3-4 Pictus Catfish. They are an active swimmer.

Since they are scaleless fish, they are more vulnerable to common aquarium diseases, so you need to pay close attention to water parameters. As for water temperature, you should keep the water between 75 and 81°F, and the pH should be between 7.0 and 7.5.

Pictus Catfish Diet and Feeding

Pictus catfish are omnivores by nature. They eat meat and plant matter. In the warm waters of South America, they are found eating insects (dragonfly larvae), snails, small fish, and algae.

This makes raising and feeding catfish very easy. They will consume just about anything you put in the tank.

The essence of your catfish diet should be a high-quality pellet. In the behavior section. you will recall that we said that catfish spend long periods of their time in hidden areas near the bottom of the tank. To provide them with some variety, you can always use foods such as:

• Fresh food (brine shrimp and beef heart)
• Frozen foods (bloodworms and blackworms)
• Vegetables
• They will also spend some periods of time feeding in the substrate of your aquarium, so you can let the algae grow as your Pictus will eat it.

Typically they will ignore most live foods in the upper dwellings as they do not like to venture far from the bottom of the tank.

Finally, it must be reiterated that they have a big appetite. You must make sure to keep them full to avoid aggressive behavior toward the smaller fish in the tank. Also, since they produce a lot of waste, you must make sure to do at least water changes every two weeks (25%).

Compatibility with other fish

There are still several things you should know about keeping it with other fish:

• First, they will eat much smaller fish if they are hungry. You will know this happens often if you read the feeding section above. So, ensure you do not keep them with small fish that fit in their mouths.
• Second, Pictus is known to be a very active fish; they are fast and energetic swimmers. For this reason, you should avoid adding slow swimming fish (like cichlids) to your tank, as Pictus can irritate them and cause harm with their sharp barbels.
• Third, they are sometimes sold as shallow-water community fish. This is false. If your community tank is full of popular community fish such as guppies and neons, avoid this fish.
• Fourth, as a general rule, you want to ensure that the Pictus is the smallest fish in your tank.

If you keep these points in mind, you will have no problems when introducing other fish species into your aquarium.

Now, as for the species that make a good tank mate with catfish, you can include strong and energetic fish species such as:

• Giant Danios
• Opaline Gourami
• Other catfishes (Loricariid, Doradidae such as the Raphael striped catfish)

Keeping Pictus Catfish Together

It is common for people to keep Pictus catfish as a single specimen; they will survive independently without any problems.

However, most people keep them in a shoal, as they are naturally a shoal species. They do well in groups of 3-4, but generally, you can keep up to 6 at a time; just make sure your tank is large enough. We recommend a tank of at least 150 gallons when keeping a school.

Pictus catfish breeding

Like the other freshwater fish we have discussed, the Pictus catfish is also extremely difficult to breed in a home aquarium. This is because typical home aquariums are not large enough to reach sexual maturity; to reach sexual maturity, they need a lot of space. Ideally, you should aim for a tank of at least 200 gallons. Anything less than that, and the chance of your catfish reaching sexual maturity is slim to none.

From our research, we haven’t found any examples of people keeping them in home aquariums; only a handful of people have reported some breeding behaviors, let alone actual breeding.

Not much is known in general about the reproductive characteristics of the Pictus catfish. In wild Pictus, there is spawning, meaning that the female lays eggs first, and then the male fertilizes them.

Is Pictus Catfish Right for Your Aquarium? (Summary)
After reading our complete guide to Pictus catfish, you can hopefully decide if this is the right fish to add to your aquarium.

This is a fantastic fish that would make a great addition to most aquariums. Just make sure you can provide the space required to keep them healthy.

While some people claim that Pictus catfish are not suitable for beginners, we would disagree, and with proper planning and care, even beginners can keep them successful.

They have an energetic, entertaining personality and offer community traits unlike other catfish.