Ornate Bichir

[Polyaddict86]

I done something similar with mine biscirs. I add a male ornate that was about 25-30 cm long, with the female wich was really thicker and around 45-50 cm and the "chief " of the tank. The tank was'nt very big (150x50 cm) and also, the male arrived in very bad condition. he was upside down, and after i've managed to save him, he lost one eye versus the bacteria. I dont have any other place to house him... so i had to try luck adding him in the tank with the female. She was immediatly interested by the new guest, but beside everithing i've read about and my worryes about the whole situations, she never had an aggressive behaviour agains him. On the contrary, she swimmed with him for all the tank, like helping him get confortable and in this way managing not been disturbed by the 5 nile tilapias i've in the tank. I think maybe mine is a lucky case, but that's is my experience. So i quote the others, try and monitor the situation! (pic related)View attachment 1210887 View attachment 1210888 View attachment 1210889

Third picture you can really tell the size difference

 

[Cosmic_surfer]

Well right now the size difference is about 20cm to my big female in the 40cm range. She hasn't shown agression since being moved to the larger tank, but the size difference has me worried. I am going to grow my little ornate out a bit more. In the next month or so I would imagine the size difference would be slightly decreased, I don't think she can fit him in her mouth, but nature can always find ways to surprise you, and that is a surprise I don't want.

For substrate I will say I went from a black sand like substrate to a fine gravel substrate. The light on the 125 is not the best since only 1 of my 3 hallides is firing atm. I really need to change this light to an LED (seriously considering retrofitting this large halide to led itself since the casing is basically a giant heat sink).