P. senegalus new setup

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D. Soares

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 22, 2013
8
0
31
Brazil, Ceará, Fortaleza
Hello, my name is Gustavo, I am from Brazil, and as strange as it may seem I am into polypterids right now, even with the number of nice monsters of Amazon river with a price relatively low;
I always liked polypterids, tough I can not have the most cool ones, I believe mine 3 senegals are cool enough, they are currently in a 25 gallon tank, in the next few weeks tough, they are supposed to go to the 66 gallon tank, just for them, my biological filter is not so full of media, but I'll be putting a lot more with the time, and their growth, coming, at the moment, I need help with tankmates for them, I plan on 8 Congo Tetra, and at first I was happy with that, but nowadays, I am giving quite some thought to put together one African knife, my first doubt, is if it would be OK in there, I am quite emotional about my tank and fish, once when an S. lucipinnis of mine died, I spent one day entirely on bed, without even getting up to eat or to go to the bathroom.... but that is not the point, the point is that I like to see mine fish get adult and live comfortably, I would rather sell my soul than sell my fish, BTW the 66 gallon has a 20 gallon sump, with a 530 gph pump, I plan to get it full of "canister media" as I believe you people call, probably 2.2 liters by month, is the maximum I can get;

I plan to have quite a few plants, anubia, java fern, java moss, cryptocoryne, elodea, and maybe some amazon sword plant, that much is to get the nicest water quality as it may be possible and for getting nice hiding places for the bichir and (possibly) the knife, I almost forgot to say, the tank have a tight fitting cover, actually it's just a piece of glass cut in the right size...

it has been a lot of time since I wrote something in english, so please feel free to correct any grammar mistakes
 
B

baconmeupscotty

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 7, 2013
349
0
0
Kansas
Your English is great! it sounds like the 66 gallon is going to be a great set up for the senegals. I really like to see them in planted tanks.


I've kept both congo tetras and an african knife with my bichirs. Both ended badly. The knife was attacked repeatedly, even though they were the same size, until I was forced to give it away and the congo tetras were eaten. If you can get fully grown congos it might work with just senegals, or if you got them when the senegals were small enough.


I'd recommend a Ctenopoma acutirostre with your senegals. They are commonly called spotted perch, climbing perch, leopard ctenopoma or african leaf fish. I have two in with my bichirs and they get along fine. They are commonly kept together and could live comfortably in a 66 gallon.
 
D

D. Soares

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 22, 2013
8
0
31
Brazil, Ceará, Fortaleza
Sorry for being late;

The senegal are barely 4" so i believe the Congo Tetra should be fine, i alredy tought of having a acutiostre, but i kinda forgot them... Maybe the 8 Congo tetra and an Acutiostre should be fine ? Thanks for remembering of him, it's just that i alredy have an oscar (and possibly a texas cichlid, both in a 80g, it'll be or the texas or 4 silver dollars) and i kinda do not feel like having him, i just think he look to much like the oscar, and i really like the way all the knife fishes swim, maybe by putting him soon (the bichirs are not even 4 1/2") could be okay ?

Sorry i forgot to say it... In inches, it would be 40 x 20 x 20, in cm 100 x 50 x 50.
 
B

Blazin

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 20, 2013
176
6
48
Illinois
Sweet dimensions! I currently have a senegal, 3 delhezi, an african brown knife, and a african butterfly fish living together with no problem. Everyone eats just find and no one bothers anyone. At first my knife was very skittish and would always hide, but once it got use to his tank it comes out and swims around. If you do decide to get an african brown knife I suggest you give it a hiding spot (I have a vase decoration) and be patient if it hides most of the time. As for feeding my knife would only accept blood worms, so i gave it a few good feedings and then would only feed the tank massivore. After a couple of days it started eating massivore. From my experience I would add the knife fish, I love mine!
 
D

D. Soares

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 22, 2013
8
0
31
Brazil, Ceará, Fortaleza
Yeah, i believe it would be nice to have a Knife, there will be a lot of plants (Amazon Sword) in one corner of the tank for a hiding, of course, there will be some rock caves and driftwoods too, at first i tought that even the African Knife would be to big for mine tank, but then i measured my oscar... 6", the knife get 12"(if i am not wrong)... So it would be like two of him together ? (Speaking of size of fish and swimming space).. Oh yeah, the senegal may (really hardly) get 20"... Why not a African Knife then.

that is quite off-topic, but today has been a nice day, in the way back home just found a working pc in the trash, now i have +160Gb, a new RAM memory, a reserve motherboard and a PC power supply(not sure how it is in english).
 
D

D. Soares

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 22, 2013
8
0
31
Brazil, Ceará, Fortaleza
Hello again, it has been one week since the last activity here, well today i finally put the 3 senegals in their new home, as it is quite late now (11PM in Brazil) i won't be posting any photo today, tomorrow i will send some videos and photos;
all i can talk about now is the contents of the Tank;

(i have right here / i plan to get / i will rehome)
Senegal Bichir, 3 / 0 / 0;
Congo Tetra, 2 / 6 / 0;
African Knife/Leopard Ctenopoma, 0 / 1 / 0;
Texas cichlid, 1 / 0 / 1;
Pearl Gourami, 1 / 0 / 1;

i will have to sell the Pearl Gourami, the Texas will go together with my Oscar in the 80 Gallon or i will change him for 4 Silver Dolars(that will go to the 80 Gallon), most likely to happen is the second;
and i will see how much would cost the African Knife, for importation, at the LFS, if it's too much (+150BRL/67USD, yeah there are taxes for EVERY damn thing here, BTW a ps4 here is the equivalent to 1.800USD) i will most likely go for the Leopard Gourami (they are at least no more than 30USD here)
 
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Mrs. Snakeage

Feeder Fish
Sep 20, 2014
3
0
0
Seattle, WA
Good for you getting a larger tank - I got a 2 inch polypterus senegalus about 6 months ago and now it's reached 8 inches and is too cramped in the 29 gallon tank, starting to get really restless. I think for tankmates they would do fine with anything that can't fit in its mouth and is fairly quick moving or intelligent. In fact I have a heavily planted tank and there are guppies and swordtails small enough to fit in it's mouth that are surviving for months too, though she has eaten some of them. It did chew on fins of a slow moving, not too smart, betta. But most active fish that are bigger than an 1.5 inches (about 3 to 4 centimeters) are probably safe I don't know enough about knife fish to comment on that. . .and my experience is with only this one bichir. I wish I could keep it, this is such an interesting and fun fish with a lot of personality. I just work too many hours and have too small of an apartment to get into bigger tanks. I am glad I'm not the only person who gets emotionally attached to fishes! I am making myself late to work a lot of days because I need to stare at them for about an hour every morning!
 
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Mrs. Snakeage

Feeder Fish
Sep 20, 2014
3
0
0
Seattle, WA
Also it was a good suggestion someone mentioned about letting fish 'grow up together' Most of the fish that have lived with my senegalus since it was small survive really well - they know enough to stay out of the way, or else the bichir itself decided not to eat them, I'm not sure. It's when I have put new fish in there that they get eaten right away. An algae eater a third of its size is its best buddy all along. Another fish that can get right under its nose but really dash out of the way if it needs to. So the bichir doesn't bother it. Also I keep the beast WELL FED. Feed it twice a day with shrimp or big cichlid pellets or chicken/beef liver or heart. That probably helps on the bichir's attitude.
 
Askaleymanfish

Askaleymanfish

Aimara
MFK Member
May 15, 2014
2,308
636
135
Danville Virginia
Mrs. Snakeage said:
Also it was a good suggestion someone mentioned about letting fish 'grow up together' Most of the fish that have lived with my senegalus since it was small survive really well - they know enough to stay out of the way, or else the bichir itself decided not to eat them, I'm not sure. It's when I have put new fish in there that they get eaten right away. An algae eater a third of its size is its best buddy all along. Another fish that can get right under its nose but really dash out of the way if it needs to. So the bichir doesn't bother it. Also I keep the beast WELL FED. Feed it twice a day with shrimp or big cichlid pellets or chicken/beef liver or heart. That probably helps on the bichir's attitude.
Click to expand...
Agree on raising them together I have had 3 guppys survive for 3 years with my first 8" sen cause they were raised together while all the baby catfish an everything else I added got eatin


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