Few Bichir Questions

[demonmagus]

Hi, in a 6ft by 2ft by 2ft would I be able to keep a polypterus delhelzi with an ornate bichir? Or would the ornate swallow the delhelzi like spaghetti? also would dwarf snakeheads just get eaten? and are bichirs particularly fast growing fish, and do they need a lot of sand?

also any recommendations for filteration on a tank that size? there will also be an oscar and possibly other fish.

and how do you pronounce polypterus, is it polyp- terus? and is it a long 'o' sound?

thanks

 

[beblondie]

po-lyp'-terus.

 

[demonmagus]

aaaah thankyou, do you know the answers to any of the other questions btw?

 

[mr williams]

aaaah thankyou, do you know the answers to any of the other questions btw?

Hi,

You will need at least some sand as I origionally kept mine on gravel, They find it hard to sort gravel from food so there is a danger they will swallow the gravel by mistake. Mine don't appear to be growing that fast I've had them 6 months and they have added maybe 1 inch. Mine have also not tried to eat anything else in the tank but purely because they couldn't manage anything.

They do absolutely nothing during the day btw.

I run the internal filter plus the an electronic ehiem external filter ( don't know what number but its the biggest you can get). Untill I added the 2nd filter the water quality was pretty bad. i tend to feed a lot of meaty foods so it's worth it. My birchir actually fancies my mbu despite the fact he's supposed to be a savage predator. How humiliating.

 

[cane76]

ornates grow fast,much faster than delhezi but they can be kept together ime
they dont need much sand they rarely bury themselves
for filtration i would use 2 x eheim pro 3s(1700lph)each but they aint cheap

 

[demonmagus]

I assume that the dwarf snakeheads would get munched right?

is the delhelzi more active and would they also eat the snakeheads?

thanks

 

[OohFeeshy]

Hard to say, I doubt an ornate would go after a fully grown dwarf SH, but if it was small enough a del might.

 

[demonmagus]

is this just because they are lazy?

 

[OohFeeshy]

What, ornates? They tend to be like logs, unless it was a small and really stupid SH, it should be fine. Whereas dels are quite predatory, mine goes after anything it thinks it can swallow.

 

[beblondie]

What, ornates? They tend to be like logs, unless it was a small and really stupid SH, it should be fine. Whereas dels are quite predatory, mine goes after anything it thinks it can swallow.

I was of the opinion ornates were about the best fish in the world at doing log impression,especially young small ones however having had the chance to observe a couple of them at night.They tend to be very nocturnal when young and small.
Once they get some size to them 10+ inches the ones I have seen tend to be semi active during the day-Anne

 

[cane76]

my ornate sits on top on a internal filter all day long but at night he is very active