Petting Scats, Unusual???
I'm not sure if you respond, but as I was cleaning  my tank I noticed that my silver scats were swimming near my hand. Sometimes  brushing up against me softly, while the other fish stayed at the other  side of the tank afraid. Then slowly a scat swam between my hand and the  glass of the tank, then settled in my palm.  I was quite shocked at  the affection they were showing so I pet one with my finger. As I pet it, it  folded is top fins back, breathed slower, and relaxed in my  hand.  I thought it was just a coincident but as I  cleaned. I chanced fate, and
attempted to pet the other scat, and the same thing  happened.
I've been stung by an other aggressive scat before  and soon gave it away. So I'm quite careful around them when I clean. But  I've never heard of a small tank fish getting chummy with me.  Weird  huh??? Have you heard of this behavior before with  scats???
>> A lot of larger fish will loose their fear of the keeper, and will approach the hand that feeds them, I would not be surprised if your scats do this. But please be very careful, getting stung by larger scats can be very painful. You may be able to start hand feeding your scats if they are that friendly. But Be Careful, Oliver

Mottled Coloration in Scat  8/22/05
Hi WWM Crew,
<Hi, Pufferpunk here>
I need your expertise. Does this look like Velvet to you?
See how about 3/4 of my Scats body is dark brown? Is this normal coloration based on mood in Scats? I can't tell if they were like this when I bought them and I'm getting paranoid or if they are sick.
The facts... I have a 55g BW tank, about 1.007 specific gravity with 2 Colombian sharks, 3 mollies, 3 platies (starter fish, moving to a new home when I have the money for the tank), a milk spotted puffer, a Betta (neighbor didn't want him anymore, had to adopt), 3 green scats and 4 glass catfish. Before you lecture me about being overcrowded, they are all juvenile and will be split up into separate tanks as I can afford to set them up.
<Just to let you know (so you can start saving), the scats will eventually need around 50g/fish & require SW as adults.  The puffer will also require salt water.  The Columbian sharks are schooling fish that grow quite huge (up to 18") & need marine conditions as adults.  Please put the Betta in a 2g bowl (or larger).  It will be killed with the aggressive fish you have & will not appreciate the salt.>
Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate about 20 PPM and PH is about 7.6 to 7.8.
<BW fish are best kept at a steady pH of around 8, generally by using aragonite as substrate.>
The water is clear and everyone seems happy and healthy, with the exception of the scats. One of them appeared to be very sick yesterday. He was hanging out behind the power head and would not eat.
The other two scats were beating up on him real bad and he was doing nothing to defend himself. I looked all over the net for info about what might be wrong before finally deciding that he was probably just getting picked on too much. I cut the top off a 2 liter coke bottle, cleaned it up real good and poked holes in for water flow. I caught him in it and dug it down into the gravel. This protected him from the other two Scats. I checked him this morning and he seemed much better. I let him out and fed everyone and he ate and was his normal racing around the tank self. Now he's doing it again, and I've been watching him close all day, there hasn't been any excessive aggression by the alpha. This coloration issue may be new or it may not be, I'm not entirely sure.
I've never seen velvet before, can someone help? Oh, and I did a 50% water change today.
<I would say this is stress coloration, due to his being picked on.  You could try moving  the decor around a bit to alter territories.  Make sure there is plenty of decor to break up lines of sight & ample room for everyone to have their own territories.  I'm afraid, even though you are aware of the fact that these fish need larger tanks, it will be sooner than you think.  Scats grow quickly, are messy eaters & high waste producers.  ~PP>
Thanks,
Erik in Oceanside
P.S. Two of the three Scats have this coloration, the third is all green except the spots. The alpha, one of the discolored ones, has shown no signs of stress, neither has the third that has no discoloration.

Aggressive scat problem  3/7/06
Hi,
<Hi, Pufferpunk here>
I bought one  green scat and put it in my aquarium and he hung out at the top looking lonely (30 gallon, hexagonal display tank).  So I bought him a brother to keep him company, a red scat 2X his size.  He happily beat the living daylights out of brother red.  So I did some research and found they are schooling fish and that what my scat did often happens in groups of two.  So I bought a third (smaller) green scat.   Now he mainly beats up on the big red scat, but when the red one hides in the newly decorated garden of algae, he beats up on the small one.  Any ideas what to do?  I've been feeding him krill (supposedly the act of tearing it apart will give him an outlet for his aggression) but still no luck.  I'm out of options.
<As far as I know, scats are not schooling fish, <<Mmm, are in the wild. RMF>> they do not get lonely.  Since an adult scat gets as large as a dinner plate, I suggest a much larger tank.  There is no room for territories in your tank.  They require at least 50g each & marine conditions as adults.  ~PP>
Thanks, Judy