Polypterus eyesight?

I dont know if it is normal, but mine does the same thing!

they usually hunt with sense of smell and i think vibrations? but yeah their still a bit clumsy

Not sure on the eye sight cause all my bichirs will chase feeder fish in circles for 10min then they get bored. But the are clumsy. i thik they use both eye sight and smell. When i put food in the swim around and run into it but pass it by then come back a few seconds later to eat it

Where the heck is Anne (bichir princess) when you need her ...GEEZ...just can't get good help nowadays!!!

I think they are blind, but I have no clue. I just like them. They like to use those "feelers", I don't remember what they are called. Those are the thingies that are sticking by their "noses, or nosetrils." Anne had a very good article publish on AP, but I didn't keep it on my puter, I should have, with her permission of course.

haha... mine also does the same thing..... haha...

I do have bills to pay ya know lol so I yes was at work.Anywyas there i no hard fast evidence to bichir visual acruity as scientific papers seem to contradict each other (fun huh)
My thoughts are their vision actually varies by species with those more active during daylight have better vision.-Anne

the ''feelers'' are external nostrils(nares) there is a second set of nostrils but they are hard to locate as they have no external projections

beblondie said:

I do have bills to pay ya know lol so I yes was at work.Anywyas there i no hard fast evidence to bichir visual acruity as scientific papers seem to contradict each other (fun huh)
My thoughts are their vision actually varies by species with those more active during daylight have better vision.-Anne

the ''feelers'' are external nostrils(nares) there is a second set of nostrils but they are hard to locate as they have no external projections

Click to expand...

See what I mean? I think you should quit work and devote your time for us bichir keepers! love that way you go out of your way to promote proper bichir care

hip hip !

thanks anne

As far as I can tell, they do not have very good eye sight. I have watched my polys and done some experiments with them....If I put food into the water, I usually feed them frozen krill and frozen beefheart, they go into a "hunting" mode...Their sense of smell is soo accute, they can smell it as soon as it hits the water. As for feeders, I notice they use the sit & wait method, some of my smaller polies do like to chase them around, but my bigger polies do just sit & wait...and when a goldfish smims by them, WHACK.
I also would put my finger on the glass when they are right by it. They seem to follow my finger as I move it slowly across the glass, but if I move it too fast, they seem to loose sight if it. So as EYE see it...lol...sorry, had to put the little pun in there...lol....Their sense of smell is very accute!

Jen

bichirs have poor eyesight, they make up that through their sense of smell, they also clumsy even if you put the food right in front of them, sometimes they won't realize it