I love these critters, but I have a 29 gal. Could I put a couple in it.

No too small. They are fast and active fish. Even in my 50 gallon it felt too small and they appeared stressed. They behaved better once I upgraded to 120Gallon.

Thanks

Maybe Synodontus would be better.

Those look interesting. Can I put a few in a 29 gal, would they go good with some shell dewlling cichlids.

i have two in my 28 and they stopped growing and appeared very stressed so i speed my plans up and bought a 75 gallon which they will go into in about a week, which in my opinion 75 is a minimum

How do you tell if they're stressed? I have a pictus in a 30gal tank and he seems happy (had him just over 1 year now)

I had a pictus about 3 years ago, and when he got stressrd, his "whiskers" were folded in a bit, and he was alot less active. My sister wanted him so bad, I gave in and she had him.

Emma

It depends on your setup and the tank's footprint. If you don't have many other bottom dwellers and there's enough open swimming space (not too much bogwood or rocks in the way) then it will be fine. If it's stressed, it's either less active and hides - or will start to display odd behaviour - swimming up and down just in one corner, etc.

Ah ok, he did swim up and down a bit once when the water quality took a dive a while back.

He seems pretty active, always zipping up and down the length of the tank , I have quite a large bit of wood in there and a rock cave but they're at the corners of the tank with lots of openings to swim through

hmmmm, a few interesting things here...Pictus cats like their own kind and it is my understanding they should be in groups of 3 or more. I had 3 in my 55 gallon & they were fine until i added a few plecs who caused them to hide more. also, a syndontis cat can grow from 6-9 inches, which is a lil small for a 29 gallon tank if you plan to keep it in there. Those are just some things I have heard.