I added a pictus catfish to my cichlid tank recently, its a 22 gallon with many rocks and live plants. The pictus is not near as active as he was in the tank at the shop, he hides non stop and i have yet to see him eat, its been 2 weeks. What could the cause be? Im wondering if adding another 1 or 2 of them may help his demeanor.

They are said to like their own company (though my 5 do little except fight) so adding more could help, though the small tank size will cause territorial issues. I find that my pictus try and find somewhere to hide and only come out at night or at feeding time.

so you think 3 might be to many? should i try to open up some space in the tank? I also heard that they get adjusted to the lighted tank quite fast, but i also do have inadequate lighting, just enough to cover the plants, but 3/4 of the tank is not lighted yet.

My pictus are nocturnal, so I doubt it will get upset over too little light. Your problem is having a fish that will grow to 5-6" and generally wants a group of 5 or more but only having a 22 gallon tank.

alright thanx

I get up in the middle of the night to watch my Pictus in action

To feed him I have one of those poles with jaws at the end used for planting tanks. I put a sinking wafer in it and plop it into his cave.

I might try it, how do shrimp pellets work?

I only have one pictus catfish and he loves to be alone. At first he wasn't very active but then I got those air stone wands, you know the longer ones that make bubble walls. I put them all along the back of my tank, it looked like an alka seltzer bomb went off at the back of my tank and he was super active after that. I feed mine fish flakes everyday and blood worms and brine shrimp every saturday and he eats both. He likes bloodworms most though.

Mine likes shrimp pellets, sinking wafers, and the algae discs. The reason I use the claw is because my other fish steal his food before it reaches the bottom. If you don't have that problem...just drop the food in there. He will also grab a flake as it goes by. They also clean up uneaten food on the gravel after lights out. Therefore I only put somthing in there for him every other day, and only a little bit. I was worried before that mine wasn't getting fed enough until he came out in the daylight one day and and had grown ALOT ! Healthy as can be.