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Pimelodus Pictus Catfish

© Clifford J. Aliperti

At the time I had an Oscar and a Green Severum in my 65-gallon tank, each about six inches. They have had their share of territorial quarrels and have since completely ceased to get along, but that's another story entirely. Back when we were trying to work things through I decided I needed a somewhat sturdy dither fish to maintain the peace.

I did use to have seven Silver Dollars in that tank, but with the rapid growth of the cichlids, I was forced to move the Silver Dollars to another tank to avoid overcrowding. I am somewhat particular about keeping my South American tanks South American, so that eliminated a number of possibly eligible Asians Characoid fish from my list. I guess I could have split the Silver Dollars up and avoided the threat of overcrowding for awhile longer, but it just didn't seem right to me to split the school. Another option would have been to purchase another three or four Silver Dollars, but as nervous as these fish can be I prefer to keep them in schools of a half dozen or more. Plus, to be honest, I was in the mood for something new.

So I took my knowledge and brought it to the local fish shops. I was leaning towards getting some Pink-tailed Chalceous, but the place I had spotted them in only had one left and I had been looking to pick up three or four. There went that idea. Finally, in my third stop I noticed the Pictus Cats, which I had noticed before but never under these circumstances.

There were about a dozen of them patrolling the bottom of a tank of various sized Severum, the largest being larger than my own. Now, I had always ruled these guys out from my reading. They are a scaleless fish, which means if a cichlid wants to take a bite they are biting straight into the meat of the fish, plus they have those danged long barbels, which is probably their most identifiable trait, outside of their beautiful black and gray polka-dot design. But here they were with Severum, hmmm.

I watched them for a half an hour or so before calling over the fellow that worked the fish section of the shop. I knew he was an actual fishkeeper himself, not just a minimum wage worker thrown into the fish section, so I was ready to trust his opinion. I asked about the Pictus Cats and how they seemed to get along with the Severum. No problems whatsoever I was told. Then I asked about my specific situation. He correctly informed me that the Pictus cats should get to be about five to six inches eventually, but should be fine with the larger fish because they can protect themselves by their fast swimming patterns and spiny blades in their fins. Great I thought, I picked out the largest four in the tank, and was very happy to pay just about twenty dollars for them-all this and cheap too!

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