Can pictus catfish coexist with invertebrates?

[Ninjoma]

Hey All,

I'm currently working on stocking ideas for my 75g tank. One fish I'm considering are pictus catfish. However, I was planning to include dwarf mexican crayfish (cpo) in the tank. Does anyone know how likely pictus are to try to eat the crayfish? Has anyone successfully housed pictus catfish with CPO crayfish or other medium sized invertebrates like amano shrimp or bamboo shrimp?

I would also like to include some mystery snails and rabbit snails in the tank. Do pictus catfish eat larger snails?

[Zenzo]

I kept a lot of pictus catfish in the past (one of my favorite catfish species for aquariums). My experience is that they are greedy eaters with big appetites, and will eat anything that can fit in their mouths (like an entire cube of bloodworms or brine shrimp...the big cubes). I am not sure about crayfish, but they certainly would eat amano shrimp and any snail that is small enough. 

[Ninjoma]

Oh wow, that is useful context. I did not know they could fit an entire brine shrimp cube in their mouth! I would really like both, so I may experiment with the crayfish, but I'll probably just have to choose one or the other.

As an aside, have you ever housed a rainbow shark with a pictus catfish? Any thoughts on how that might go?

[Zenzo]

On 12/14/2022 at 6:17 PM, Ninjoma said:

Oh wow, that is useful context. I did not know they could fit an entire brine shrimp cube in their mouth! I would really like both, so I may experiment with the crayfish, but I'll probably just have to choose one or the other.

As an aside, have you ever housed a rainbow shark with a pictus catfish? Any thoughts on how that might go?

I have...a long time ago...I think maybe back in like 2004 or 2005. If I recall, they seemed to get along just fine in a 55 gallon tank with multiple hiding places. . 

As far as their mouths, yes, they can fit quite a bit in their mouths. A full grown pictus cat is around 5" or so. Back when I kept them, as soon as a frozen cube hit the water and they sensed it, they would find it and swallow the entire cube. After having had that happen multiple times, I would defrost the cubes a bit to give the other fish a chance to get some food. 

[Biotope Biologist]

Rainbow sharks have issues with conspecifics and generally leave others alone. Generally recommended 1 shark per 100 gallons. They are really nasty towards eachother as adults. 

 

As far as a crayfish id forego one or the other in this tank. Luckily crayfish are fairly sedentary so you could put them in a 10g later down the line.

 

I really enjoy pictus they are so hyper and beautiful. Good luck with your tank!