Strange Dinosaur Bichir Behavior?

[Lyra0727]

Hikari? Now that I havent tried.. Does it keep them satasifed? My bichirs tend to make my gouramis into snack food if they arent completely satasifed..

Also, how would you feed them worms? Do you just drop them in and the bichirs go after them? They dont come to the top to eat so i couldnt hold them until they grabbed it..

 

[§tudz]

feeding them worms is easy enough, dig them out the ground and give them a quick wash, then drop them in the tank.

Also try frozen prawns, cockles, mussles strips of whiting too.

I have 5 P. senegalus and 2 P. delhezi and have kept P. endlicheri endlicheri in the past too.

Great fish, and as you say if you dont feed them enough they will attack each other and other fish. My endlicheri ate a firemouth cichlid, and a 13" fire eel my smallest P. senegalus also lost a pectoral fin to one of the delhezis, he is now ok and recovering in a seperate tank.

I have just setup a species tank for the senegalus, which they will be going into at some point over the next few weeks.

Body rubbing is normal behaviour, but nose rubbing and winding around each other is said to be breeding behaviour. I have not bred polypterus yet, but I do tend to try and get a breeding pair from my group. But this is a lengthy process from what Ive read, but we shall see.

I too got my new group in January, as I had to sell my others before I bought this house as I wasnt able to move them straight away.
they are great fish, and can be taught to eat from your hand.

See some of my old videos for hand feeding:
Video 01

Video 02

Video 03

 

[Lyra0727]

feeding them worms is easy enough, dig them out the ground and give them a quick wash, then drop them in the tank.

Also try frozen prawns, cockles, mussles strips of whiting too.

I have 5 P. senegalus and 2 P. delhezi and have kept P. endlicheri endlicheri in the past too.

Great fish, and as you say if you dont feed them enough they will attack each other and other fish. My endlicheri ate a firemouth cichlid, and a 13" fire eel my smallest P. senegalus also lost a pectoral fin to one of the delhezis, he is now ok and recovering in a seperate tank.

I have just setup a species tank for the senegalus, which they will be going into at some point over the next few weeks.

Body rubbing is normal behaviour, but nose rubbing and winding around each other is said to be breeding behaviour. I have not bred polypterus yet, but I do tend to try and get a breeding pair from my group. But this is a lengthy process from what Ive read, but we shall see.

I too got my new group in January, as I had to sell my others before I bought this house as I wasnt able to move them straight away.
they are great fish, and can be taught to eat from your hand.

See some of my old videos for hand feeding:
Video 01

Video 02

Video 03

That was really cool! I wouldn't be able to hand feed mine though, they swim away from my hand and I have them in a 4ft long tank..... that would take forever! I did try giving them earthworms though, thankfully I didn't have to cut them up. Now I just have to worry about them fighting eachother over it.. eesh! I tried giving them the smaller red wiggler worms but they dig themselves right into the gravel.

I really hope what I saw wasnt them trying to breed though.. I cant afford to feed more of them! Nor do I have the tank space.. lol.

 

[§tudz]

lol, I wouldnt worry about them breeding, if they did (which there is a slim chance) they would eat the eggs, and you would have to give specific care to the fry for the to survive.
So its not a worry

Glad you are enjoying the fish though, they are one of my fav' species of fishes

 

[Lyra0727]

They are my favorite fish out of the whole tank My friend and I each picked one out when they were 2.. maybe 3 inches long? WHen they were that smalled I could hand feed them bloodworms.. now not so much but they use to actually let me pet them.. I miss thoes days. But they still amaze me today!

People kept telling me that I would have to worry about them jumping out of my tank.. but I never had that problem either they are actually pretty calm in my tank. But its a really big tank.. so that could be why.

 

[§tudz]

They are good escape artists

I had a large female senegalus get out of a VERY small hole in the tank rim (of my 120gallon tank, where the filters go in) and got herself cooked under the lights

once they get bigger you will need to ensure the lid is tight, or you have rocks on it.

I lost a breeding pair of Channa orintallis earlier this year as I opened the tank, turned my back for literally 10seconds and they were out, without me knowing. I found them the next day next to the door of the fish house dead
crafty little sods! very much like polypterus

 

[Lyra0727]

Oh wow! I guess I'll need to be super careful when they get bigger.. My lids are pretty tight on. Plus my cats always lay on the lids at night haha.

I'm hoping to move them to a 75 gallon in about a year anyway that way I can get a black ghost knife and have them together and turn my 60 gallon into a simple community tank

 

[§tudz]

That would be a great tank for them, as for the BGK meh! pretty boring, dont see them much they hide most of the time and can be overly aggressive.
If you wanted something with a bit of movement large barbs are a good choice, I even kept them with medium/large low aggression cichlids like Geophagus jurupari, fire mouth cichlids, clown loaches, plecs, prochildus to name but a few species, all are very active and IMO much better than a boring BGK But it does also depends on budget as most of those I listed can get pretty expensive when bought from a LFS
Right its after midnight, I gotta be up for work soon, so Im heading to bed

 

[Lyra0727]

I was always told that they actually communicate with you in a way.. they would go to the top and everything. That's why I wnted to give them a try. I do best with fish with a good personality. That's also why I got the bichirs! But depending on how the situation is when I get my bigger tank, who knows what type of fish I will be getting.. I seem to be spending so much money trying to get my 10 gallon settled Some type of bloom going inside there causing the fish to get sick and die.. ugh! At this rate it'll be 2 years before I get my bigger tank.

 

[§tudz]

Yeah stocking a 10 gallon is hard, thats how I ended up with 21 tanks

I would say 10gallons was FAR too small for a senegalus as well, as they can attain anywhere from 12" to 20" if would definately be too small for a bichir and a BGK

I use ten gallons as breeding tanks for groups of cories or smaller paired fish such as cichlids
Always a great starting tank though

 

[Lyra0727]

Well I'm trying to use mine for breeding guppies, which so far has been ok. 3 are pregnant, 2 died from what ever this bloom in my water is though.. But everyone else seems to be doing fine. I just dont know if I going to be having any fry anytime soon since they might just absorb the fry considering whats going on..

Worse my 60 gallon is a little cloudy because I shut off my under dravel filter. It was cusing my nitrates to go up.. Not a good fish week for me