arowana wanting to eat bichir??

TheBroc

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 1, 2014
888
2
0
CALIFORNIA
is it possible for an silver aro to want to eat/kill a specific bichir?

I did my feeding, then sat down at my computer and was just watching my tanks with the blue moon lights on when I notice my aro scanning the bottom like it sees something it wants to eat. and then attempts to bite something which happens to be the new lap I just bought. luckily he missed and the bichir swam away. now it is pacing back and forth near the bottom as if its searching for it. I have 3 other bichirs in this tank and there is even 1 smaller than the one it tried to bite. he pays no attention to the other three. but keeps going down to the ground as if its going to bite/eat/swallow the bichir. usually he just paces back and forth near the top. but now its mid-very low should I remove this one bichir? it is the newest addition about a week or so....
 

TheBroc

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 1, 2014
888
2
0
CALIFORNIA
Well moving is not an option tonight. Put him in my 55 gallon for maybe 55 seconds and it had the head of a clown loach in its mouth. :/ oops. Quickly netted him and he let the loach go. Hopefully the aro doesn't have a $50 late night snack
 

PUHUCBLMX2

Exodon
MFK Member
Dec 25, 2013
162
3
23
Costa Rica
Fish certainly "acclimate" to tank mates. You don't need me to tell you that, obviously. Your Aro clearly thinks that you put in your birchir as food for him, while the other birchirs are "buddies". Ironic that you moved your birchir and after being nearly and 'eatee" he tried to become an "eater" in such a short time frame, usually the stress of almost being eaten keeps them from being aggressive for a bit.

What is your introduction protocol? I find it is best to overfeed on feeding day, wait until "lights out" and then put in the Kritter Keeper with the new fish on the bottom in the dark for about 5-10 minutes (I like a KK over a floating plastic bag because it introduces the new guy into the bottom to the tank instead of the top of the tank, the top is where food comes in). After 5-10 minutes, just open the hatch and let new guy swim out, sometimes it take him a while, especially if he's a bottom dweller like a birchir. You can always lay it on its side.

All this being done in darker conditions and on full bellies helps, but obviously if half the tank is poking around the kritter keeper and looking at newbie like he's a fresh treat, you can give it a while until things calm down a bit.

Anyway, just a method to think about, my motivation came from a buttacoferi that couldn't understand that EVERYTHING introduced into the tank wasn't food. His Food! His attitude was: the only reason to put something into the tank was so he could eat it. Well long story short, he dominated the stratosphere and ignored almost everything else in the tank (grew huge of course, refused to allow anyone else in the top 3rd of the tank, only way to feed "the others" was drop in sinkers simultaneously one for him, and one for the rabble on the bottom to feed on). So that was the birthing of an idea: Introduce newbies at night after everyone was fed, it was dark, and let them be in the tank before "being in the tank", While keeping them out of "food" category.

Let me know if you try it and if it works.

P.S. I never considered what would happen if you went the other way and the aggressor was put into a tank of wimps. Would he get used to being around his "friends" and not eat them in 50 seconds? Maybe new birchir would like he Clown loach buddies after a half hour? clown loaches have pretty good spines and are hard to swallow.
 

Death03

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 1, 2014
296
17
33
Philippines
Fish certainly "acclimate" to tank mates. You don't need me to tell you that, obviously. Your Aro clearly thinks that you put in your birchir as food for him, while the other birchirs are "buddies". Ironic that you moved your birchir and after being nearly and 'eatee" he tried to become an "eater" in such a short time frame, usually the stress of almost being eaten keeps them from being aggressive for a bit.

What is your introduction protocol? I find it is best to overfeed on feeding day, wait until "lights out" and then put in the Kritter Keeper with the new fish on the bottom in the dark for about 5-10 minutes (I like a KK over a floating plastic bag because it introduces the new guy into the bottom to the tank instead of the top of the tank, the top is where food comes in). After 5-10 minutes, just open the hatch and let new guy swim out, sometimes it take him a while, especially if he's a bottom dweller like a birchir. You can always lay it on its side.

All this being done in darker conditions and on full bellies helps, but obviously if half the tank is poking around the kritter keeper and looking at newbie like he's a fresh treat, you can give it a while until things calm down a bit.

Anyway, just a method to think about, my motivation came from a buttacoferi that couldn't understand that EVERYTHING introduced into the tank wasn't food. His Food! His attitude was: the only reason to put something into the tank was so he could eat it. Well long story short, he dominated the stratosphere and ignored almost everything else in the tank (grew huge of course, refused to allow anyone else in the top 3rd of the tank, only way to feed "the others" was drop in sinkers simultaneously one for him, and one for the rabble on the bottom to feed on). So that was the birthing of an idea: Introduce newbies at night after everyone was fed, it was dark, and let them be in the tank before "being in the tank", While keeping them out of "food" category.

Let me know if you try it and if it works.

P.S. I never considered what would happen if you went the other way and the aggressor was put into a tank of wimps. Would he get used to being around his "friends" and not eat them in 50 seconds? Maybe new birchir would like he Clown loach buddies after a half hour? clown loaches have pretty good spines and are hard to swallow.
+1 on this
If you will add another tankmate in a predatory community you would want to add the tankmate in the time you would turn off the lights so that the aro won't see it. And since the bichir looks like a big worm, your aro might think that the new added bichir is a big treat for him. If it gets worse you will need to separate them for a while. Maybe put the bichir in another tank and wait for a week to introduce again the new bichir in the tank. Well that's just my opinion
 

lardieleftover

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2014
255
11
48
san diego
I know my first bichir, an 8" weeksi really enjoyed being with the group of my 5 clown Loaches that were about 4 inches each, they were buddies. But I introduced next bichir poorly and neither bichirs liked each other until I 're introduced new one a few days later in the dark

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