Bichir Questions

[lilmomma84]

My mom bought a bicher eel one day at the pet store. They called it a dinosaur eel and my two small boys are in a dinosaur phase so my mom thought it would be something fun for them when we visited her. The boys were pretty excited about it. Anyways, pet shop didn't tell her much about her bicher eel and she took it home. She put it in her tank and it ate ALL of her fish. My mom didn't want it anymore and brought it to my house for the boys. I didn't really want the fish either, but I did some research on it and learned that it doesn't eat tropical fish flakes like she thought it did (Obviously!). The kids really seem to like the little guy, but I must admit, he really isn't my kind of pet. I prefer things that are cute and furry, and it doesn't help that I'm afraid of snakes. But what the heck, maybe I'll give it a shot. My questions are as follows: do bicher eels have teeth and will they bite people or little fingers? Quite possibly a noob question, but I was reading some of the bicher stories online and thought it was worth asking. If it gets out of the tank, how far can it travel? How do you get it back in the tank? A big fish net?? My tank has a cover on it but an opening where the filter and stuff is, do I need to put something on that opening to keep my bicher in? Thanks in advance for the help and sorry for the long post!

 

[reeeedfish]

Bichirs have teeth inside their throat, but don't worry, even if it tried to nibble on you, all you would feel something like rubbing paper back and forth on your finger. It most likely wont even try to get near that area if you have a current. They dislike swimming into them. So I highly doubt it will get out of the tank. If it does manage to get it can travel a fair distance. Don't know the exact number of feet though. If the near impossible happened, and you had to catch it, you could either yes, get a big net, or catch it with your bare hands. But don't worry about it getting out though. I would like to know the dimensions of the tank and if it looked like this:

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Uh I'm pretty sure they do have teeth inside their jaw. But they don't really bite unless they are feeding and you stick your finger in the way. They are pretty child safe.

Do your research though before attempting to keep a bichir. And they aren't an eel btw.

 

[joel.uejio]

I bought a "dinosaur" bichir, which I'm pretty sure is a Senegal (Polypterus senegalus) like the one in reeeeeeeeeeedfish's post.

Right now he's about 4" and cute as a button! He mostly likes to float next to the filter spray bar or sit on a big leaf. He did nibble on me once when I was doing some maintenance, but I could barely feel it. I've actually fed him by hand a few times, which was really neat!

That being said, I believe they can get to be about 1 foot in length and a bit more ornery as they age. I would suggest reading up on them and deciding if you're properly equipped to take care of him.

Good luck!

 

[enthusiast1]

poor thing no wonder it was eating her fish she was trying to feed him fish flakes?

I had a bichir and its diet should be varied & wide. These are really interesting fish! So predatory & so neat to watch

Some things i included in my bichirs diet was freeze dried tubifex worm cubes, freeze dried bloodworms, & i actually preferred live foods...as did the bichir. I would regularly buy wax worms that float at the surface, & every once in awhile get him small earthworms but if those get in the gravel & die before being eating its a real mess so with earthworms i fed by hand. Crickets, flies, feeder guppies...they're truly a monster! so cool though

he will probably still attack your fish...they regularly do their dirty work at night, so check heads in the tank every morning and u will soon notice the numbers dwindling and a lost fish every other morning or so. By feeding with the live foods, and including some cheap feeder fish in the tank with ur other more-prized fish, it will curve the bichirs temptation to eat one of ur fish, & wen it does decide to strike a fish the feeder guppies are pretty good @causing that distraction to save your others

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Senegal bichirs will actually usually only get to about 8-10" in capivity. I've had mine for a few years and its only about 8".

 

[always4lora]

Senegal have been reported to much larger than 8" with over a foot being obtained, i've never seen it like , mines only about 4/5 inch atm,
oh and theres a couple of species of senegal:
# Polypterus senegalus meridionalis
# Polypterus senegalus senegalus

the top ones get rather large

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Senegal have been reported to much larger than 8" with over a foot being obtained, i've never seen it like , mines only about 4/5 inch atm,
oh and theres a couple of species of senegal:
# Polypterus senegalus meridionalis
# Polypterus senegalus senegalus

the top ones get rather large

I've yet to see a senegal bichir much more than 10". My guess would be the meridonalis is just not traded very often. I'm not saying you're wrong by any means I'm just stating my my own personal experiences.

 

[indigoj]

I've got a 9" senegal and used to have 3 that were bigger than that - biggest close to 12" - they were kept in my 6ft tank. In the right conditions these guys can and do reach 10-12".

In my experience they do best in a small group and will eat anything that fits in their mouths - including your other fish if not careful. They need a nice varied diet that includes some vegetable matter - mine takes algae wafers and even spirulina pellets from the surface!

 

[Mr._Fishy]

I guess I just haven't seen big ones or I just can't estimate lengths then. I just tried to measure my bichir and she's about 8.5-9" or so. So I'm guessing it's a little bit of both.

But yes, a varied diet is good. Mine is pretty much a garbage disposal, it eats silversides, bloodworms, prawns, and even spirulina pellets and kelp flakes.

 

[synodontisjack]

Just thought i'd add that meridionalis is no longer a valid species but a varient of p. senegaulus.