Pimelodus ornatus

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mhoward1999

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Hi,
This is my very first post on this forum, so bear with me. :)

I have been a lifelong aquarium enthusiast, but have recently hit a wall. My biggest problem is my "pictus catfish." I have it in quotes, because I am not sure that's really what it is. That's what it was sold to me as, but my fish is extremely aggressive. He killed my 12" plecostimous overnight!!! I have found a picture that looks EXACTLY like my fish in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aquarium Fish by Dr. Stanislav Frank. He doesn't list pictus catfish as one of the common names for this creature, and his description is purely physical. It doesn't explain the behavior of this type of fish. Are you familiar with Pimelodus ornatus, and if so please tell me all you can about them.

Here is where my problem comes in. I currently own three tanks: a 10 gal., a 29 gal., and a 55 gal. I do NOT want to get another tank, but I REALLY want to have a tank with Black Moors and Orandas. All I know about these fish is that you can't mix goldfish and tropicals. I have not bought any of these beacuse I can't house them with the way I have everything distributed now. Here is what I have:

In the 10 gal:
A teeny-weeny baby plecostimous (He will go in the 55 when he grows)
5 red rasbora
3 male fantail guppies

In the 29 gal:
2 kissing guramis
a breeding pair of blue paradise guramis
1 large black snail

In the 55 gal:
1 "pictus catfish"

I am very unhappy with my curent arrangement. I feel the the 10 gal is overcrowded and the "mean" whatever-he-is is livin' it up all alone in the 55! I had him in the 29 and planned to set up the 55 for goldfish, but now I feel trapped!

TIA for your help!
 
I have two pimelodus ornatus and have owned a few before them too, in my experience they are not a aggressive fish but they are active predators which hunt down and eat other fish up to around 1/3 their own body size. The real problem you have is the size this fish grows to, ornates can get up to 14" long and need a minimum of a 5 foot tank when full grown, they also grow real fast, my present two have gone from 3 to 7" in 6 months.

My advise would be that if you dont want to buy a bigger tank then you should return the fish and exchange it for something more suitable and community friendly.
 
Hmmm. I don't know what to think. Mine is a year and a half old, and he's about 5, maybe 6 inches long. ...but he looks exactly like the pic in the book I have. He does not have the spot pattern that I see on the pictus catfish examples, he is more of a mottled grey/black.
 
Nope. That's not my fish. This book must be wrong. But that still leaves me wandering what in the world he is!!! :blink: I am going to do an online search to see if I can find a pic that looks like him... (I don't have a digital camera or I would just take a pic. Thanks so much for your help, anyway. I will be posting a link as soon as I find a pic that looks like him... if I can. :D
 
Answered in your other topic.
 

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