A New "oddball" Start

[StingrayKid]

Well, I've been off these forums for a while, and over the past few months, I've really hav'nt done much with my fish. Of course, I did the regular feeding, cleaning, testing, etc. But, I really lost my intrest for a while. Recently, I've been on and off these forums getting ideas on what to do with my 55gallon tank. It has been cycling for months now, and all my water perameters have leveled out. The problem was, the tank looked like a wreck. Tannins from the driftwood made the water almost black, and the carbon packet in my canister filter broke, also turning the water black. Plus, the filter was jammed up so not much water was being filtered. So, I called my good friend over and we took the day to fix up the tank. After a day of rocks being dropped on toes, water spraying in faces, and gunk getting on clothes, we finnaly finished it. Here's the finished product.

Anyway, I would really like to get Birchirs for this new setup. The tank its actually going to be planted, and a awsome lighting system is in the mail for the plants. But, the question is, how many Birchirs can I have in this tank, and what specie(s) can I get for it? Also, are Birchirs okay with plants? Thanks for any help and reading.

EDIT: Sorry about the photo size, trying to re-format it.

 

[beblondie]

Plant the tank first to allow plants to develop a god root system.While bichirs do not destroy plants like cichlids they can up root them by hunting thru them so plant early and let those roots develop for at least a month.
As for species
P.senegalus(most comon an cheapest)
P.p.polli (often mislabeled as P.reropinnis)
P. p.palmas
P. p.buettikoferi
P. retropinnis retropinnis(hard to find)
You could do a total of any of the above species-Anne

 

[StingrayKid]

Alright, thanks for the info. I'm going to look into those species on the net and see if I can get a special order from a local fish store.

 

[beblondie]

Alright, thanks for the info. I'm going to look into those species on the net and see if I can get a special order from a local fish store.

If not I can give you a link to THE importer of bichirs in North America-Anne

 

[StingrayKid]

Yeah that would be nice. Can I get that link?

 

[beblondie]

Yeah that would be nice. Can I get that link?

Have a link

http/www.rehobothaquatics.com/index2.html

 

[StingrayKid]

Thanks a bunch. I'll probably be ordering through them after looking at what they have.

EDIT: Also, I will be keeping these Birchirs with a Royal Pleco and a Rapheal Catfish. Both a decent size. I've been told that Birchirs are generally passive and do well with tankmates. I have some medium sized Clown Loaches that I want to put in there also. Because of this, I think I'll be only getting one or two Birchirs. Will the Birchirs be okay with these passive tankmates?

 

[beblondie]

Thanks a bunch. I'll probably be ordering through them after looking at what they have.

EDIT: Also, I will be keeping these Birchirs with a Royal Pleco and a Rapheal Catfish. Both a decent size. I've been told that Birchirs are generally passive and do well with tankmates. I have some medium sized Clown Loaches that I want to put in there also. Because of this, I think I'll be only getting one or two Birchirs. Will the Birchirs be okay with these passive tankmates?

Plecos tend to be problmatic with bichirs.It seems with age plecos develop a taste for slimecoat and with their rasping teeth can do severe damage.Other than that they should be fine.One question tho are you getting a bigger tank anytime in the future?-Anne

 

[StingrayKid]

I'm not sure if I'll be getting a bigger tank later on. If anything it would be much later. Is there a space issue?
As for the Pleco, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him. I'm going to go see if he can go in my other tank.

EDIT: Just did a quick search on my Pleco. I guess I had some false information because I found out that they grow far too large for my tank. I'll be returning it to the store.

 

[beblondie]

I was just wondering because the clowns eventualy wil be about a foot each so will the bichirs-Anne

 

[StingrayKid]

Well, I figure that most Clowns generally dont reach that 12" mark, and I only have two of them. I'll probably be getting only one Birchir, possibly two. Not to mention that the Clowns are slow growers. To me that sounds reasonable, but if I have to, I'll upgrade later down the road.

I think that I'm going to stick with just planting the tank and getting the clown loaches situated in the tank. I'll consider the idea of Birchirs later on. Thanks for the help Beblondie. Once I figure out my inventory and decide on what I'm going to do, I'll think about Birchirs.