Pictus catfish not doing so well

[raseii]

Hi,
We bought 2 pictus catfish from the store on Wed. Today one died and the other is not doing so well. Since we have got them, they spend all there time up in front of the tank in front of the filter flow of water just swimming around. I thought they were bottom feeders but I havent seen them on the floor of the tank since we got them. I checked the Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates and everything is fine. In our house we do have hard water, do you think that is why they are not doing so well?
Thank you

 

[Katchan]

pictus are bottom feeders but unlike plecs, bristlenoses, cory's etc they do spend quite alot (if not all) their time swimming. A little more info on how it is looking would help eg. distended stomach, growths, fuzzyness, white spots etc.

Katchan

 

[CFC]

From the behaviour you desribe i would suspect nitrite poisoning, what test kit did you use and how old is it?

If not the nitrites then my second thoughts would be a low oxygen level, pictus cats come from waters with a naturally high oxygen content and suffer badly if there are low levels of O2 in the water. What kind of filtration do you have and how much surface turbulance does it create, also is there any live plants and do you use CO2 injection?

 

[andywg]

While oxygen levels could be a problem, all the research I've read to date shows that dosing with CO2 does not affect the waters ability to carry oxygen. However it may cause a pH swing. Don't know if this would have that much of an effect

How long had they been at the shop? It could be due to the shock of a number of moves too close together.