Bichirs and planted tank?

It would depend on which species of plants u gonna place in. Also if u have a CO2 injector rather than depend on fish waste, the plants will grow faster and stronger regarless if ur bichirs will trash them. Upper jaw bichirs actually loves planted setup buy u wont see them often. Also you would need to have substartes that have minerals that the plants will benefit to. I use eco-complete mix with moonsand.

Here was my old 210g setup before. I have 4x 10" sene, 1x 13" polli, 1x 16" endli, 18" lap and 7x ropefishes in there but all hiding within the plants.
I took down this setup when I started buying more fish especially bichirs and started doinh JDM style and bought a 375g tank. This planted tank lasted 3 years. Could have lasted longer if it I hadn't took it down and did a JDM style.

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I separate the african aro at first. Once the planted are growing with stable roots and stronger thicker and standing firm. Then u can place back the african aro. I used to have a black shark in this tank before which shredded, trashed and ate plants as it main diet but with CO2 injector and with 8-12 hours light on. Plants were able to keep up the growth. You would need a faster growing plants for fish that like to trash plant. It's usually when there are few plants that they will end up getting trashed and uprooted. However if the tank is well planted it should not have a problem as fish will eventually grow tired of trashing the plants. However the downside to this is the first few months, you need to be patience as some plants will get uprooted and get stock in the filer intake. It will eventually pay off once the roots are holding strong. Forgot to mention, you need a deeper substrates so the plants can hold more. Shallow substartes and you will see many plants get uprooted.

Also if you have a floating plants with thicker roots such as water lettuce or water grass. The smaller upper jaw will actually stay on the floating plants' roots rather than hide within the plants on the bottom. Conetails and water sprites are also good for floating plants. They make a water line forest for upper jaw bichirs. Ropefish love them especially. You will rarely see them cruising the bottom if u got a thick layer of floating plants.

I keep my 2x senegal, and dlhezi in a planted tank, and they rarely tear anything up.

I keep all my polls polys (sen, palmas palmas, mokelembembe, retropinnis and previously a delhezi) in a planted tank with all kinds of anubias. I just secure it with fishing wire and I rarely find torn or broken leaves. I didn't have problems when I used other plants like java fern and aponogeton either. Planted tanks bring out lots of natural behavior IMO which is why I love them.

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