Pictures Of My New Baby...

[2polypterus]

The catfish i used as my avatar is a Giant Mekong Catfish Pangasianodon Gigas. It is very much real, but probably not for long! It is a critically endangered species whose existance is threatened by fishing, development and river damming. It lives in the Mekong river in Southeast Asia and can grow up to 10 feet long! and over 600 lbs. It is the largest freshwater fish in the world. This particular one was caught by fishermen and then purchased by someone who tried to release it back into the river. Unfortunatly, it did not survive.

SamUK...

The 10 and 20 gallon tanks are temporary quarters used as grow-out tanks. In general, bichirs have a difficult time locating their food by sight and a smaller aquarium means that they have less searching to do to locate their food using their noses. Using smaller tanks for growing out the fish has been a tried and true technique for me and my young bichirs seem to be perfectly happy with their surroundings. To each his (or her) own, however.

-Joe

Joe-

Do you breed your own polypterus or just buy them? Both of mine are born in captivity and I would love to be able to breed 2nd gen tank raised polys. If i could figure out their sex that would help too..

 

[JawsA10]

gorgeous bichir!! i wish one could go with my loach and spiny eel without eating them!

 

[Fruitbat]

Unfortunately all of my bichirs are purchased and many are wild-caught. I have never managed to have any success breeding Polypterids, though to be fair I've never really tried all that hard. I do currently have a number of pairs and I'm planning on trying for some breeding next Spring.

As for determining the gender of a bichir...it is actually relatively simple if you have young adult individuals. The anal fin (the one on the underside of the fish right in front of the tail) is diagnostic. Males will have much broader anal fins than the females.

-Joe

 

[0x0000ff]

oh

this is so unfair.

They sell Bichir's at my LFS.... for ... THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS EACH. This is for roughly 6-8cm specimen (under 3 inches for the metrically challenged)

so many of these fish seem to be common over in the USA, but here they're very rare. Fire eels are usually $200-300 again for around 10cm specimen

 

[pica_nuttalli]

good grief! where on earth are you located?

 

[0x0000ff]

australia, qld.

lame!

 

[2polypterus]

Joe-

Thanks so much for the great illustration! I really appreciate it!! It looks like I have two females..

Kate