Pricing For Bichirs

[Nevergone815]

Ok the title says it all. How much do these 2 species cost.

The lfs near me has both of them for sale at about 6-7" (closer to the 6" mark though)

Ornate- $34.99
Palmas- $24.99

Are these good prices for them? They only have 1 of each and I have the ornate on hold as I've never seen one, but I may pick up both as I have the room for them.

What do you guys think? Should I? Are these good prices for them?

Thanks a lot

Edit: Forgot to mention the prices are in US dollars just so you know

 

[Fruitbat]

Nevergone,

Those are reasonable prices for both of those bichirs. You can get them cheaper if you order them on-line from a dealer but then you have to add in the cost of shipping which can be more than the cost of the fish.

Oh...by the way...the fish in my signature is a young Ornate Bichir, though I must admit it is an exceptionally colorful one.

-Joe

 

[beblondie]

If the species are correctly identified the prices are good-Anne

 

[Nevergone815]

Thanks that helps me out. I know the ornate is right and I put it on hold until Friday. The palmas is brown in color, I read that is it's "normal coloration", but could someone post pics of it so I can compare? I'll also look on google, but user pics tend to give me a better idea as they are "candid" google pics sometimes seem so fake... does that make sense?

Edit: My google search came across and it doesn't look like a palmas, it looks like an overpriced senegal to me... But the ornate is right.

The lfs gets a lot of fish in that are "oddballs" or trade-ins. There are 4 people who generally are there (it's a really small one, but pretty decent).

2 of them know fish really well, and might not have caught the mix up as they are busy cleaning and stocking that section and the fish are the busiest section, and no one in this town looks for the "expensive fish" but rather the "cheaper fish" so unless I come along, and point it out (since I look at those "expensive fish" as I know them). They are usually good at it, but only one of them are on at a time and only on when fish come in, sometimes neither are on... IDK why this is??? So maybe they weren't on when the fish came in and is assuming that one of the 2 girls wrote it right. I'm going to tell them about it when I go pick up the Ornate Friday.

But this one chick knows nothing about fish really, just the basics, but she is really good with reptiles and amphibians, rodents and such.

The owner is the last one... no comment on her, she is a complete dweeb and idiot and works on the dog grooming section of the place.

They do have some other "side hands" but they are pretty much college kids... I've only worked with a couple and they seem to know fish too, but they are on rarely when I'm in there.

I hope I didn't make this lfs seem incompetent or anything as they are usually pretty good. This is the first that this kind of mess up happened.

 

[Fruitbat]

Nevergone,

It is, unfortunately, VERY common for local fish stores to mis-label Polypterus senegalus as Polypterus palmas polli. The majority of the time this happens because their suppliers sell them the fish identified that way and most LFS folks really don't know one bichir from another so they go by what their wholesaler tells them.

Polypterus palmas polli looks like this:

-Joe

 

[Nevergone815]

Thanks a lot. That's like the pics that I've come across so its verified that it is a senegalus and not a palmas. I wound up not getting either of them. IDK why, for some reason I just changed my mind. I wound up not even feeling all that well and never went to the lfs .