Pictus Cats As tank mate

[paulinbna]

I have a 90 gallon cube tank with a lot of rock in it. See attached..

The rock pile is at the back of the aquarium with about 10 inches of space in the front..
I was looking at putting 3 or 4 pictus cats in there. I have about 20 Africans nothing overly aggressive, an upside down catfish and a male and female bristle nose pleco.
PH is 7.5.

Attachments:

[davidtcb1]

I had a few Pictus cats early on. In my opinion, they need length to run side to side in a tank. That's pretty much all they do. They are very spastic, fast, darting fish that never seem to slow down. And they tend to get sizable pretty quickly. If you're going to try it, I'd do 2 instead of four with that many tank mates. Be careful netting them too. Pectoral fins are very sharp and they get caught in nets very easily. I lost one that way, Keep us posted!

[mruble]

With pictus cats coming from South America and doing best in lower PH water compared to African Cichlids, I would recommend looking at a Synodontis species.

[ree123]

Do you alter your H2O parameters ? If not and you use just tap H20 then the Pictus Cats should be fine with Africans, IMHO. But I do agree with only 2 in that shaped tank.
Also worth remembering is if you touch them, even through a net, their spines can be toxic to you if you get stuck and it really hurts. I speak from previous experience.

[paulinbna]

No I don't alter the H2O. I have crushed coral in it but I don't alter the actual water I put in it.

[mruble]

What is the PH of your water?

[paddysdaddy]

Synos would be better but if you want pictus, get the spotted ones, not the 4-lines. The four lines get ~12" and if it fits in their mouths..you know the rest.
Long term success would lie with just about any Synodontis species, my faves are Decorus and Multipunctatus for most African community tanks. Keep in mind that decorus also get ~12" but have much smaller mouths!