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Passport
- Family
- Other Catfish
- Grows to
- 12 cm (4.7")
- Lives
- 8–10 years
- Temperament
- Predatory
- Care
- Intermediate
- Swims
- On the bottom
- Keep
- In a group of 3 or more
- Water
- 22–25 °C (72–77 °F)
VenezuelaColombiaBrazil
Care requirements
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On record for Pictus Catfish: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 243 L / 64.2 US gal
- pH 5.8–6.8
- Hardness 1–15 dGH
- Diet carnivore
- Tank length 120 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Pictus catfish are the reason "community catfish" needs qualifying. They're silver, spotted, and beautiful in motion, with barbels longer than their own bodies streaming behind them — and they are predators that will eat any fish small enough to swallow.
They're also relentlessly active, which sets them apart from the sit-and-wait catfish most people know. A pictus patrols constantly, day and night, and needs the room to do it.
Neons, ember tetras, chili rasboras and shrimp are all food. Not occasionally, but reliably, and usually overnight. Stock around that rather than hoping.
Tank setup
Give your pictus length and open swimming space. They cover ground continuously and a tall or cluttered tank frustrates them.
Keep them in a small group. They're social with their own kind and a lone pictus is more nervous and more nocturnal than a group of them.
Provide caves and shaded retreats for daytime, along with the open water they patrol. Wood, pipe and rockwork all work.
Use sand or smooth gravel. Those long barbels drag along the bottom and sharp substrate damages them.
Choose tank mates by size, not temperament. Anything that fits in the mouth will eventually go in it.
Feeding
Pictus catfish are hungry, opportunistic carnivores and they'll eat almost anything offered.
Feed a protein-based diet: sinking pellets, frozen bloodworm, prawn, mussel and earthworm. They take food from the bottom and mid-water with equal enthusiasm.
Feed them properly and they still hunt. Being well fed reduces the odds a little and does not make small fish safe.
Avoid: an all-dried diet, and avoid the assumption that a full catfish leaves tank mates alone.
Filtration and flow
Filter heavily and give them strong flow. They come from big flowing rivers, they're messy eaters and they're active enough to need well-oxygenated water.
Keep nitrate low with real water changes. They're sensitive to poor conditions for a catfish and the barbels show it first.
They're strong swimmers and use current rather than avoiding it.
With plants
Pictus catfish are safe with plants and have no interest in eating them.
Their speed and size mean loose plants get knocked about, so anchor things well or attach them to hardscape.
Plant the perimeter and leave open lanes. That layout suits a patrolling fish and gives smaller tank mates cover, which they will need.
Health
They're hardy and long-lived in a well-maintained tank.
Never use a net on one. The pectoral and dorsal spines are stiff, sharp and serrated, they lock outward, and they tangle in mesh instantly — the fish injures itself and can give you a painful, slow-healing wound. Move them in a container.
Salt suits them poorly. Choose a medication by reading what it says about catfish and then give it as written; an improvised half-measure is a reliable way to stress a fish without clearing whatever is wrong with it.
Shortened barbels are a signal to check the substrate and the water quality, and to watch the damage in case it becomes infected.
Breeding
They're not bred in home aquaria in any meaningful way, and commercial stock comes from hormone-induced spawning on farms.
The wild trigger is seasonal flooding — changes in flow, depth, temperature and chemistry across a big river system — which a tank cannot reproduce.
No reliable home method exists. Anyone offering tank-bred pictus is almost certainly selling farmed fish rather than something they spawned themselves.
Tank mates
Avoid43
- Amano Shrimp Pictus Catfish reaches 12 cm and will eat adult Amano Shrimp.
- Bamboo Shrimp Pictus Catfish reaches 12 cm and will eat adult Bamboo Shrimp.
- Blue Bolt Shrimp Pictus Catfish reaches 12 cm and will eat adult Blue Bolt Shrimp.
- Blue Dream Shrimp Pictus Catfish reaches 12 cm and will eat adult Blue Dream Shrimp.
- Cardinal Sulawesi Shrimp Pictus Catfish reaches 12 cm and will eat adult Cardinal Sulawesi Shrimp.
Only with care62
- Kribensis Pictus Catfish is predatory and Kribensis is peaceful.
- Panda Garra Pictus Catfish is predatory and Panda Garra is peaceful.
- Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid Pictus Catfish is a risk to Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid: other catfish and sth american cichlids - dwarf are a pairing to watch.
- Angelfish Pictus Catfish is a risk to Angelfish: angelfish and other catfish are a pairing to watch.
- Assassin Snail Pictus Catfish is a risk to Assassin Snail: other catfish and snails are a pairing to watch.
3 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.