I set up a tank once that had a wet/dry filter. A weird affair that basically consisted of a sluice through which water poured down into a plastic box under the tank.
Anyway, I put some ropefish in (not bichirs, but the same familiy). All seemed well, but I came back a few weeks later to clean the filter, I found all four ropefish, slithering about inside the filter like snakes. They were not actually underwater, just constantly being splashed with water! Really bizarre. In the end created a meshwork grill to keep the ropefish from going spelunking again, and all worked out fine. I have since learned that in the wild, ropefish do crawl about waterlogged grassy swampy places, hunting for food as well as migrating from pool to pool, so doing what they did was entirely natural.
The moral of the story is that both bichirs and ropefish are outstanding escape artists; they make Houdini look like a rank amateur. Expect the unexpected!
Cheers,
Neale
i have 4 x senegals and am thinking of getting a delhezi.any interesting/funny experiences any of you have had with your bichirs???
