Allow me to take you back through the fog of history to a time before time even began. A time when great armored monsters once prowled the black muddy waters of ancient rivers feeding upon prehistoric fish and animals. These beast of both the land and the water adapted to there dark and murky home and rose to become an apex predator in the river systems of what would one day become Africa. They adapted a lung like breathing system that allowed them to breath air like a mammal that helped them to thrive in the low oxygen waters. As well as strong pectoral fins that could carry them across land to other rivers during dry seasons when the water simply dried up. All of these things combined made up a fish that outlasted even the greatest of the land dwelling dinosaurs and carried them through the ages. They roamed the Nile river while the Egyptians built their great pyramids and hunted the water ways of the Congo while the world waged wars and time slowly marched on but never once did these monsters stop for time holds no meaning to an ancient beast such as these. The fish I'm speaking of is the Polypteridae commonly known as the bichirs.
These fish are truly a living breathing dinosaur which if that wasn't enough to make you go wow they pile on a whole lot more to peak any fish keepers interest. Chief among there interesting qualities is there ability to breath air directly from the surface and even walk on land if forced to. They can travel great distances using there pectoral fins like a set of legs and as long as they stay moist they can stay on land. That being said they are a fish and unless forced to venture out onto land they will stay in there watery element. My interest was first prodded into action while researching African predator fish one dreary winter night out of boredom and as I scrolled through pictures of various Giants impossible to keep in the home aquarium or illegal in many cases I stumbled on what at first glance looked to be some kind of water snake being board and a former snake keeper I clicked on the link and started reading on what turned out to be a Senegal bichirs one of the smaller types of bichirs reaching about 12-14 inches in the home aquarium with proper care. After getting caught up in reading and staying up way later then I should have I was hooked on learning everything I could about these weird ancient monsters and of corse the wheels in my head were already turning and I started planning a tank for one. I wasn't sure what type I wanted since there are several types that vary from 12 inches all the way up to 2 feet obviously a 2 foot dinosaur fish sounded awesome but since I know full well a fish like that needs a massive tank I wanted to plan it out and learn as much as I could about every single type of bichirs before making my choice as I would suggest any person thinking of getting a new fish do since there is no such thing as to much research.
So let's skip ahead 3 weeks I was in the proses of moving houses to a temporary rental house so I wasn't going to set up anything permanent however as I'm sure every fish keeper knows having a house without a fish tank doesn't feel like home. So I went about setting up a 40 gallon breeder as a hospital and grow out tank in preparation for my next fish which at the time I was planning on a large school of White Cloud minnows for my hillstream build but upon heading to the fish store which had them a week ago I was informed they had sold out and the next shipment won't be in for a few weeks obviously I was disappointed but hey I'm not one to rush things. But I still had a cycled 40 gallon tank up and going and I already had been prepping for building a large tank into the house I'm building that would be for the bichirs I wanted to get. I had decided on a Senegal bichirs for there ease to get in my area and there overall smaller size compared to the other species of bichirs but since I didn't want to order one until I had the big tank up and going I decided just to hold off and be strong about not ordering one until today that's right I'm human shocking I know but I can only do so much and when I went to my local petco to look for a dog leash I took a casual stroll by the fish section normally a place I wouldn't consider buying fish from but I still like to look and after looking around a bit something caught my eye. In the back of a 10 gallon tank hiding behind a clown puke colored ornament I spotted the unmistakable body shape of a bichirs she was not very big only about 4.5 inches and her tail and left pectoral looked nipped on but she was bright eyed and and responsive and swimming up for breaths of air consistently and while I'm normally not a person that will buy a fish at random I simply didn't have the heart to leave her there in a crappy petco tank. So after tracking down an employee I found she was 17$ and she had just arrived this morning I told him to bag her up and off I went with what I'm almost 90% sure is a Senegal bichirs. I got her home and after adjusting her to the temp of the 40 gallon I let her go and boy does she look happy she started exploring her new digs right away and is currently swimming about and stopping to grab some air every few minutes looking like the proper prehistoric monster that she was born to be.
Now while I'm extremely happy I got her I want to take a moment to make the statement to any new fish keepers reading this that I do not suggest getting a fish at random like this unless you already have researched it enough to really know what your looking at from a fish health standpoint as well as having a proper sized and cycled aquarium set up prier to getting the fish. In my case I had done my research I know what to look for health wise and I had a proper set up already going for her to be put right into.
For anyone that has kept or researched bichirs they will know a 40 gallon tank is not a suitable place for a full grown bichirs and I will be upsizing tanks as she grows into them this is simply a hospital tank that I can use to fatten her up a bit get her fins healthy and make sure she is dewarmed properly before she goes into her next tank.
Also if you know about these fish then you know it's almost impossible to sex them until they reach a larger size I've been referring to this fish as she because she struck me as a damsel in distress when I saw her so until I can prove otherwise I'll call it a her and be happy with that.
Here are a few pics of my new girl.
How can you not fall in love with a face like that? Lol
These fish are truly a living breathing dinosaur which if that wasn't enough to make you go wow they pile on a whole lot more to peak any fish keepers interest. Chief among there interesting qualities is there ability to breath air directly from the surface and even walk on land if forced to. They can travel great distances using there pectoral fins like a set of legs and as long as they stay moist they can stay on land. That being said they are a fish and unless forced to venture out onto land they will stay in there watery element. My interest was first prodded into action while researching African predator fish one dreary winter night out of boredom and as I scrolled through pictures of various Giants impossible to keep in the home aquarium or illegal in many cases I stumbled on what at first glance looked to be some kind of water snake being board and a former snake keeper I clicked on the link and started reading on what turned out to be a Senegal bichirs one of the smaller types of bichirs reaching about 12-14 inches in the home aquarium with proper care. After getting caught up in reading and staying up way later then I should have I was hooked on learning everything I could about these weird ancient monsters and of corse the wheels in my head were already turning and I started planning a tank for one. I wasn't sure what type I wanted since there are several types that vary from 12 inches all the way up to 2 feet obviously a 2 foot dinosaur fish sounded awesome but since I know full well a fish like that needs a massive tank I wanted to plan it out and learn as much as I could about every single type of bichirs before making my choice as I would suggest any person thinking of getting a new fish do since there is no such thing as to much research.
So let's skip ahead 3 weeks I was in the proses of moving houses to a temporary rental house so I wasn't going to set up anything permanent however as I'm sure every fish keeper knows having a house without a fish tank doesn't feel like home. So I went about setting up a 40 gallon breeder as a hospital and grow out tank in preparation for my next fish which at the time I was planning on a large school of White Cloud minnows for my hillstream build but upon heading to the fish store which had them a week ago I was informed they had sold out and the next shipment won't be in for a few weeks obviously I was disappointed but hey I'm not one to rush things. But I still had a cycled 40 gallon tank up and going and I already had been prepping for building a large tank into the house I'm building that would be for the bichirs I wanted to get. I had decided on a Senegal bichirs for there ease to get in my area and there overall smaller size compared to the other species of bichirs but since I didn't want to order one until I had the big tank up and going I decided just to hold off and be strong about not ordering one until today that's right I'm human shocking I know but I can only do so much and when I went to my local petco to look for a dog leash I took a casual stroll by the fish section normally a place I wouldn't consider buying fish from but I still like to look and after looking around a bit something caught my eye. In the back of a 10 gallon tank hiding behind a clown puke colored ornament I spotted the unmistakable body shape of a bichirs she was not very big only about 4.5 inches and her tail and left pectoral looked nipped on but she was bright eyed and and responsive and swimming up for breaths of air consistently and while I'm normally not a person that will buy a fish at random I simply didn't have the heart to leave her there in a crappy petco tank. So after tracking down an employee I found she was 17$ and she had just arrived this morning I told him to bag her up and off I went with what I'm almost 90% sure is a Senegal bichirs. I got her home and after adjusting her to the temp of the 40 gallon I let her go and boy does she look happy she started exploring her new digs right away and is currently swimming about and stopping to grab some air every few minutes looking like the proper prehistoric monster that she was born to be.
Now while I'm extremely happy I got her I want to take a moment to make the statement to any new fish keepers reading this that I do not suggest getting a fish at random like this unless you already have researched it enough to really know what your looking at from a fish health standpoint as well as having a proper sized and cycled aquarium set up prier to getting the fish. In my case I had done my research I know what to look for health wise and I had a proper set up already going for her to be put right into.
For anyone that has kept or researched bichirs they will know a 40 gallon tank is not a suitable place for a full grown bichirs and I will be upsizing tanks as she grows into them this is simply a hospital tank that I can use to fatten her up a bit get her fins healthy and make sure she is dewarmed properly before she goes into her next tank.
Also if you know about these fish then you know it's almost impossible to sex them until they reach a larger size I've been referring to this fish as she because she struck me as a damsel in distress when I saw her so until I can prove otherwise I'll call it a her and be happy with that.
Here are a few pics of my new girl.
How can you not fall in love with a face like that? Lol
What a cutiepie! I almost fell into the same temptation many times at petco. I have heard instances of ornate bichirs eating the smaller ones so I don't think I personally would do it..but I've also heard that if they're around the same size and kept well fed that they may not. Ornates generally grow faster though.
