Plight of the Pictus
July 14th, 2008
Well, a month or so ago, my kids got a lizzard from their grandmother. It’s an Anole lizard if you’re curious. What do lizards and Pictus have in common? Well, nothing really. Do you know what a Pictus is? Probably not. I didn’t.
A pictus is a little catfish for aquariums.
The association between lizards and pictus for our family is that when we got the Lizard, we thought we’d use our old fish tank for his home. This turned out to be a chore we didn’t want to tackle. We had so much fish junk and paraphernalia in there that we decided it was much more worth our time and effort to just buy a new tank for the lizard.
Anyway, this whole situation caused us to reflect on the extra space the fish tank was taking. We only stopped having fish in our old home because there was no place for the tank that our kids wouldn’t try to climb on. Now, we have a place that is relatively safe from their climbing weight.
Well, to make a long story short, we put the tank in place, let it sit for a week or so, and then added a few fish. First of all, we had a few tiger barbs that didn’t work out. One started nipping at the other two, one died, and the last two weren’t looking all that great. We took those ones back.
Next, we have a pictus and a plecostomus. We were more hopeful for these two fish. The pictus looked fine for a few weeks but eventually started looking groggy. He didn’t swim as fast as he should have. We got a new filter but that didn’t save him. It was only a matter of days until he was floating at the bottom. He took his final swim down our well plumbed toilet.
Well, we’ve had ammonia test kits, fish starter solutions, all different additives etc, but we just can’t seem to get rid of the ammonia problem in the tank. We still don’t know why it’s building up and not going away. Perhaps we need more bacteria in there that just isn’t coming like it should. We’ll work on that until we solve it and perhaps in a while I’ll have a picture of a tank full of fish that are acting normal and not dying.
We’re hopeful for the plecostomus still. He seems better able to tolerate the bad water.
Entry Filed under: Family
2 Comments Add your own
1. Stephen | July 14th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
It usually takes a couple of weeks to establish the required bacteria. The same thing happened to our tank. The first fish you buy will almost certainly die, unless you can reuse someone else’s filter, which jump starts the whole thing.
Usually there will be a spike in the ammonia for a while (which kills fish), then bacteria will develop that convert ammonia to nitrite. The ammonia level will drop.
The nitrite level will spike for a while (which also kills fish), then bacteria will develop that convert nitrite to nitrate. The nitrate isn’t as deadly to fish and is removed when you replace the water periodically.
If you’re still having problems for a month, there may not be enough surface area for a sufficient amount of bacteria to develop. You may have too many fish in the tank. Try removing some and see what happens.
2. Lance | July 14th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Good luck….our fish and your fish and enjoying a nice family reunion in the fish afterworld….we finally put the tank away and resolved to quit killing fish unnecessarily. I enjoyed the last comment….maybe someday we’ll try again. In the mean time, I’m under pressure to get a dog. Wonder how big of a tank they need…..?
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