Dinosaur Eel?

[Insomniac]

Hey everyone,

I have an 80 gallon with the following inhabitants:

1 bosemani rainbow
1 Red Rainbow
1 Turquoise Rainbow
1 Male Firemouth Cichlid
1 Fullgrown Parrot Cichlid
1 Synodontis Euruptus
1 Brown Spotted Squeaker
1 Small pleco

All of these fish are rescues from homes that weren't looking after them properly or could no longer keep them.

Recently the firemouth has began attacking the rainbows, and the turquoise one got stressed and had to be removed to a sick tank. I love both the rainbows and the firemouth....I can't decide who needs to be removed from the tank and rehomed. I was hoping to get a dinosaur eel...Polypterous Palmas (I think?) Would the firemouth be alright with this, or will he be aggressive? If I want the eel, should I rehome the rainbows and keep the firemouth or should I rehome the firemouth as he will be to aggresive anyways?

Thanks for the help

 

[Fruitbat]

Insomniac.....

Interesting selection of fishes you have there! If you really want a 'dinosaur eel' (actually Polypterus senegalus - NOT Polypterus palmas) then a lot will depend on the size of the Polypterus you get. For a CA/SA cichlid, the Firemouth (Thorichthys meeki) isn't usually excessively aggressive. This doesn't mean, however, that they are peaceful fish and they do tend to get a bit territorial at times. If you can get a reasonably large (6 inch or so) 'Dinosaur Eel' then you probably won't have a whole lot of problems with the Firemouth.

Personally, I'd be more worried about how the 'pleco'-type cat would get along with your bichir. 'Pleco' cats sometimes develop a taste for the body slime of bichirs and will rasp on the bichir's scales until damage is done. One this happens then the bichir is susceptible to nasty skin infections which can become serious or even fatal.

Senegal Bichirs ('Dinosaur Eels') aren't particularly aggressive fish but they are decidedly predatory. If any of your rainbow fish are small enough to be eaten by the bichir then they probably will be.....so that is another consideration.

-Joe

 

[Fishy412]

i agree with fruitbat. i have a senegal in my CA/SA tank. i had a smaller one that was killed off by my actually very peaceful but sometimes nippy fish. i know have a 6 incher in there and he's very fine with all my fish.