# Pictus catfish netting disaster!



## cementglow (Nov 23, 2008)

Well guys so guess what I just learned the hard way: NEVER USE NORMAL GREEN MESH NETS TO CATCH YOUR PICTUS! But unfortunately it's too late. The mistake's all ready been done. I was able to do a pretty clean and fast job untangling one of my pictus' out of the net but the other one, he now has half of his barbs broken off on both side fins and one of his fins might have possibly been dislocated. I feel guilty and terrible for the poor fish he ain't looking too good right now. Is there anything else I could doo about this? How well can I expect him to recover?


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Pictus are one of my absolute favorite fish. I have no idea what you should do but someone here will. I hope the guy recovers....what a bummer. If I ever have to net mine out of the tank your story will serve as a reminder to me to use anything other than a net. Jeez....I'm so sorry this happened to yours.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I'm sorry about your fish. I hope he'll be okay.


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## cementglow (Nov 23, 2008)

You all aren't going to believe this. 24 hours ago he was on the bottom of the tank on his side, breathing hard with the front half of his body having turned an ugly dark grey color. I was almost certain he was going to die. Now he's fine. Swimming around like nothing happened, body coloring back to it's vivid silver. His fin that was sticking out funny before is now symmetrical with the other fin. I'll be damned if I've ever seen a fish recover so fast. Not sure how it happened. Not sure if the parts of his fin spikes that broke off will grow back either.


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## willow (Sep 9, 2006)

hi
sorry to read of the first part,glad to read the second.:-D
this what i say is a little too much,too late i know......
any fish like this with barbels or spines you are best to catch
in a jar ! plastic jugs work well for this operation, and if needs be
perhaps a bucket.i learnt the hard way to in the begining,
and almost killed one of my bristlenosed catfish.
i hope he stays well.
the only other thing perhaps som melafix to keep and secondary infection
setting in.when you finish medicating you can run some
carbon in the filter,and do your regular water changes.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Glad to hear he's better. He was probably in shock after it happened.


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## satwood (Oct 6, 2007)

Don't feel bad. I've done the same thing with my pictus. I had to cut the net with scissors and left half of it on his fin for a week. Eventually he got it off himself and I found the piece of net floating in the tank. Now my wife catches him in tupperware. It's a pretty understandable calamity.


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