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I have one pictus with a redtail shark in a 20 gallon tank and when I 1st put the pictus in he was circling the side of the tank very vigorously and now after 48 hours he has slowed and liked to circle near the middle and top of the tank and only goes to the bottom to eat. is this normal? From what I have read he is going to need some friends so will I be ok to put in 2 more pictus or will this overload my tank? I am going to be upgrading in the next year to a 55 gallon or bigger so will they be small enough to be cool in the tank till then? will my redtail be driven out by all the catfish? thanks!

This really depends on the size of your fish, but I should nthink it would not be too much of a problem adding more fish to the tank. The pictus are boistrous, but not aggressive, and should pose no problems for the shark.
Not too sure about the algae eater, though. Is that a Chinese or a Siamese algae eter? If the former, it's going to get very big and mean.

hey thanks so much he is looking better and crusing around all over I think he just needed to get comfortable he is only about 2.5 inches long and I think that if I get like 2 more about the same size they will be good? I know they get bigger eventually but I wil hopefully be getting a bigger tank withina year. as for the algea eater I guess he is just a normal one nothing fancy, standard one from the pet store

This means you have a Chinese algae eater, which will grow extremely big and be downright nasty to tankmates. I'd get rid of it if I were you.

hmm weird I have a friend who has the same one and it hasn;t grown very much at all in like a year so I dunno what I am gonna do I mostly got him to clean the tank so if there is anything else that you think would do a good job then please lemme know mybe I can give this one away.

By "clean the tank", I presume you mean to remove algae? You can get a bristlenose for that.
The algae eater will eat some algae when young, but will move to a meatier diet as it grows.

what I have is a pleco! is that different from an algea eater? or is it the same thing? either way I know what it is called now!

They are different. The name "algae eater" is usually associated with the Siamese algae eater (Crossocheilus) of the Chinese algae eater (Gyrinocheilus), the latter being the more common. Plecos are plecos, and I have never seen them called algae eaters (although quite e number will do that).

yeah the dumba$$ at petsmart sold it to me as an algea eater so I guess I thought it was self explanitory, he eats algea! but I suppose what I got was a good deal on a type of catfish! lol oh well he is mellow but my other catfish is not! he has been swimming around on the top and side and not the bottom like I thought catfish were supposed to do. he has been getting used to the new plants I just put in there so I suppose that plants were taking up the spaces where he like to circle verically on the side of the tank. maybe he is just thrown my this sudden change of environment or is he lonely like everyone keeps telling me? he doesn't really even acknowledge my redfin shark or the pleco so i am worried that if I put in 2 more pictus if he will get along or just ignore them or be really territorial about it?

PS your picture freaks me out. what kind of fish is that from? ( it is staring straight to my soul! lol )

My avatar? That's the eye of Brachyplatystoma filamentosum.

Your pictus will be fine with new pictus. They arent very aggresive or territorial. If the tank is new though dont add too much at once. Pictus cats will swim all day and all night at times so dont worry they are naturally very active, more so in a group. If your catfish avoid the bottom of the tank this might indicate a water quality problem, or maybe not enough shelter. make sure they have plenty of places to dart in and out of they will feel more at home and secure. If the tank is new, ( I dont know I'm guessing, pls dont take offense!) then do small water changes regularly by small I mean less than 10% and regularly i mean daily or every other day, untill the filter is working well.
Never seen you b4 on the forum but welcome anyway!
Ps. Pictus cats are great, but they drove me metal with their constant back and forth, like watching a tennis game!
Jason

Yeah I am brand new to the forum and yeah the tank is new and hasn;t cycled yet but by the time I found out I already had bought some fish. As for not enough shelter I have a big rock archand a bunch of plants including a small wall of moneywart. Is this enough or do I need more rocks?as soon as i get some batteries for my camera I will put up a picture of my tank

ok I changed my avatar to a little sketch
the small cicles at the top are the submersible heater and filter tube I also have a bubble bar which is indicated by the ovals on the back. the item in the middle is the archway which is a little bigger than I drew it. the square is the moneywart and the circle in the corner is an amazon sword.

ok it didn;t work but I guess it gives you the idea when i get my camera going it will be better.

If you're going to put more catfish in there, you can't go wrong with more rocks, or some driftwood.

ok cool can you suggest some shape or driftwood that would be suitable or a rockformation? a picture of something my fish would like. my red fin loves the arch so I want to kep it I might just move it to the side. and build a catfish friendly area if I am going to get more fish.

Something arch-shaped (or shaped like a cave) for rockwork would be nice (you can arrange the rocks in such a shape). You could also use broken-up pieces of flowerpots, if aesthetics isn't a big thing for you.
As for driftwood, try for a largish, curved piece with plenty of crevices.

I bought two more pictus and all are getting on famously! They like to cirlce together, nose to tail. It is so cute! They seem to be very hardy and I hope they will be with me for a long time. Sadly my pleco got sucked up into my filter and was turned into a pleco smoothie.

ticklemepunk4739 wrote:I bought two more pictus and all are getting on famously! They like to cirlce together, nose to tail. It is so cute! They seem to be very hardy and I hope they will be with me for a long time. Sadly my pl*co got sucked up into my filter and was turned into a pl*co smoothie.

yikes, might want to put a grill or something over that... poor thing. glad to hear your pictus are doing well

yeah when i bought my filter it didn;t have one in the box so I have rigged one up since the accident so that it doesn;t happen again.