pictus cat babies

jjedlic

I am not really an expert on my aquarium fish but i know they bring alot of joy to people that come visit. I have a 29 gallon tank and know that tank is probably overgrown already but we might get a bigger one or move some fish to other tanks.

We bought 2 pictus catfish about 6 weeks ago, and we noticed that one of them had a much bigger belly than the other. We wondered if the big one was pregnant, so the next time we were at the pet shop we viewed the cats in the store and none of them had bellies this big. Well a month went by and the big pictus continued to look the same so we figured we had just gotten a fat cat, and to my surprise I found about 15 or 20 little fish swimming around 30 minutes ago. They resemble the catfish. I am aware that many baby fish get eaten by the other fish in the tank, and I'm wondering if there is something we can do to prevent this. The pictus are tankmates with 2 oscars and a couple other cichlids that are of a decent size, probaby all between 2 and 3 inches long.

We have a 10 gallon tank that currently has just one albino red tailed shark and I'm wondering if we should try to move the baby pictus into this smaller tank? What does everyone think?

willow

hello and a very warm welcome,and congratulations. :)
with those fish i doubt the babies will survive,so i would think
that the best bet will be to move them,however i don't know
about these cats,wether they look after their young or not,
also the rtbs might be a problem too.
i hope that someone will be able to help here.
:)

Little-Fizz

Well for right now, I would buy a fry net and keep the babies in there until you get a grow out tank. The babies will NOT last in that tank, I imagine you've lost half of them already. Depending on how many babies you save your going to need a 30 - 40 gallon just to raise them until they are old enough to adopt out (If this is your plan)

The oscars alone need a 100 gallon tank as they are large and messy fish, what type on cichlids do you have an how many? Your tank is very over stocked.

Congrats on the babies though, I don't think its common for pictus catfish to breed in the aquarium.

AussieTimmeh

Yeah, they sound like ideal food for Oscars and other Cichlids :( Move them somewhere safe.