pictus catfish poisoning tank mates?!? help

[PolyptRus]

About a month ago i acquired a pictus catfish i was aware they are poisonous but have read in my research on them that they do not readily sting and are quite docile. However ever since i got the fish i have had an unusual outbreak of nonexplanainable deaths among the tank mates of the pictus, this has never happened before and i make sure all my tanks are in prime conditions for my fish, the tank which holds the pictus is the only tank that my fish just seem to oddly die in. They don't just randomly die i will notice that they have horizontal scratches along their flanks which turn white some will have their eye damaged, and the skin on the body looks sore on some, one i had even noticed a very small puncture in the head. Initially when i notice a scratch on the body of a fish it will appear completely fine but as time passes the fish seems to weaken and become lethargic, they won't eat much, start moving slow, the breathing slows, and the scratches become worse. I have tried everything to treat them when this happens but they only seem to die. This has never happened until i got the catfish, and i have noticed the catfish will go up to a fish and look like it is scratching itself against the fish trying to injure the fish maybe? And it will repeatedly scrape its sides against the fish i really believe the pictus is killing my fish because the same fish i witnessed it scraping itself against now has a cloudy eye from being damaged as well as damaged scales and fins and its stopped swimming around so much and doesn't try to eat as much food as it once had. Anyone ever had a problem with a pictus poisoning their fish?

 

[CrashCourse]

I don't know a thing about them, but to me, that sounds like he might be the culprit. If you are able to remove him to a stable environment, heated/filtered/etc, I would probably do that immediately until someone with more experience can chime in...
Good luck.

 

[Hholly]

I'm interested in the answers you get as I've been considering getting one. Just curious what kinds of fish you have with him that have died? How big is the tank? How big is the pictus cat?

 

[PolyptRus]

I have took the pictus cat out of the tank as of this morning because my small frontosa died and it also had the scratches i described.

I had the pictus in a 55 gallon tank with African cichlids none over four inches in length also a ruby shark the ruby shark is the fish i would see the catfish trying to scrape he is still alive but seems to be sick with damaged scales, eyes, and fins and appears to be thinning out and not its old rambunctious self anymore. Everything I've read on pictus cats seems to not apply to my catfish. The tank mates of the pictus would never even bother the catfish so im not sure why it is so stinger happy :s

Any other thoughts? Do you think the catfish is responsible?

 

[PolyptRus]

Sorry and the pictus cat is around two inches or just under

 

[PolyptRus]

I also believe it killed two dojo loaches, a small pleco, a small frontosa, and a small electric blue jack dempsey. All getting the tell tale injuries. What was interesting about the dojo loaches is that they were fine for the first few days once the catfish was added to the tank, the loaches would stay hidden in and under rocks, but than one day the were no longer in the rocks and were floating around naturally and had sores on there body and damaged fins they looked as if their skin had a very thin layer peeled off and seemed to be in alot of pain and having a hard time swimming naturally so they just bobbed around the surface they died within a day or so after that both turning very stiff.

I believe what happened to the loaches and pleco is the pictus may have tried to squeeze itself in the hideouts beside them and accidentally stung them. But now ive seen the catfish scratching itself against fish on purpose. So im really not sure maybe now i will just wait and see if this continues now that the catfish is out of the tank.

 

[vanimal]

I also believe it killed two dojo loaches, a small pleco, a small frontosa, and a small electric blue jack dempsey. All getting the tell tale injuries. What was interesting about the dojo loaches is that they were fine for the first few days once the catfish was added to the tank, the loaches would stay hidden in and under rocks, but than one day the were no longer in the rocks and were floating around naturally and had sores on there body and damaged fins they looked as if their skin had a very thin layer peeled off and seemed to be in alot of pain and having a hard time swimming naturally so they just bobbed around the surface they died within a day or so after that both turning very stiff.

I believe what happened to the loaches and pleco is the pictus may have tried to squeeze itself in the hideouts beside them and accidentally stung them. But now ive seen the catfish scratching itself against fish on purpose. So im really not sure maybe now i will just wait and see if this continues now that the catfish is out of the tank.

I don't think catfish sting but they do have sharp fins.

 

[PolyptRus]

Pictus catfish have poisonous barbs they can use to sting fish

 

[vanimal]

Pictus catfish have poisonous barbs they can use to sting fish

Just looked it up. It said that if they do sting another fish it is either because the other fish was being aggressive or it was an accident and Pictus don't purposely sting other fish.

 

[bkiggy]

I have a pictus 4" in a 40g w/ 9 Cory's, USD cat, fancy guppies and 1 Betta. NO problems

 

[CrashCourse]

Any chance it's not actually a pictus?

 

[Autumnsky]

How about the possibility of having a parasite, some of that sounds like flashing/scratching themselves along the substrate, rocks and or possibility of poor water quality issues or compound issues.

What size tank and what stock, filter size and how often pwc and how long has the tank been cycled? Also do you clean your filter pad with tap water or replace the pad frequently?

 

[PolyptRus]

I know i have read they don't purposely sting either but i seen the catfish swim up to a fish that was just sitting still and scrape its spines off the fish and this fish is now sick.

 

[PolyptRus]

I have done my regular water changes and clean my filters every week and replace filter media every other or every third week. All other fish in the tank are perfectly normal and healthy all except the fish who have been "scratched" by the pictus that i have witnessed. Also the pictus is constantly moving all around and is very skiddish i have read of people being stung just by bumping them with their hand while cleaning the tank is it a possibility since the catfish is always moving all around very fast that it is bumping into or other fish are bumping into the catfish causing them to get stung by accident

 

[Autumnsky]

I was posting while you were posting.

The Beneficial Bacteria (BB) build up over time and every time you replace the filter pad you throw away the BB, the ones which help your tank to process toxic substances in the tank, from decomposing leftover food and fish waste, to neutral non toxic substances. Please read up on the articles and stickies here for cycling your tank.

That may be just part of the situation. Keep doing your research.

 

[PolyptRus]

I was posting while you were posting.

The Beneficial Bacteria (BB) build up over time and every time you replace the filter pad you throw away the BB, the ones which help your tank to process toxic substances in the tank, from decomposing leftover food and fish waste, to neutral non toxic substances. Please read up on the articles and stickies here for cycling your tank.

That may be just part of the situation. Keep doing your research.

Thank you for your insight

How about the possibility of having a parasite, some of that sounds like flashing/scratching themselves along the substrate, rocks and or possibility of poor water quality issues or compound issues.

What size tank and what stock, filter size and how often pwc and how long has the tank been cycled? Also do you clean your filter pad with tap water or replace the pad frequently?

I have not seen any of my fish scratching themselves against the substrate i wondered if it was a parasite too but most of my fish are completely normal the only ones that seem to be sick are the ones the pictus cat always seems to be pestering. But i don't want to rule anything out yet so im still going to do research on parasites and other illnesses that maybe have happened.

 

[Autumnsky]

Really hoping for a positive solution. At least you can fix everything you know about and hopefully have the best tank possible. Sometimes it is a trial and error.

It could be a "bad" fish...

What is your substrate?

 

[PolyptRus]

Here is another reason why im suspicious of the pictus catfish behaviour.

When i first put the catfish in my 55 gal it got beat up a bit so i removed it and placed it in my 30 gal at this time i had no fish deaths in either tank. The 30 gal is a community tank with guppies platys kuhli loaches two small plecos and other small fish, so i figured it would be a perfect tank for the pictus to get back to good health. After a couple days i noticed a dead guppy i figured it was normal for pictus to eat small fish like guppies so did not mind. But after a while more continued to die and would not appear to have any bites in them. And than i noticed both my kuhli loaches had died and again looked very stiff. A few days after the loaches died one of my plecos died which was weird because the same day it died it had seemed completely healthy i did see what looked like a puncture in its head when it was dead but don't really know where it came from.

Anyway at that point the pictus was healthy again so i put it back in my 55 gallon and weirdly enough the deaths in my 30 gallon tank subsided and have had no problems since the pictus was removed. But the deaths than started to happen in my 55 gal a few days after i placed the pictus cat into it.

Could this just be a coincidence?

 

[PolyptRus]

Really hoping for a positive solution. At least you can fix everything you know about and hopefully have the best tank possible. Sometimes it is a trial and error.

It could be a "bad" fish...

What is your substrate?

Aquarium gravel chunks just small peices. I also have lava rock and granite stone in my tank no live plants.

Any chance it's not actually a pictus?

I've heard of them being mistaken for other cat fish species but im pretty sure that this one is indeed a pictus catfish

 

[Autumnsky]

Sounds suspicious, I have occasionally had a "bad" fish which had to be removed. Remove him, take him back to the store, re-home if possible, but give warning about him.