Hi everibody! Any suggustion?

[JurassicFrank]

Hi everibody! Greethings from Italy!
These are my ornatipinnis! I know the photos are very bad.. but i've done my best! They don't fully rapresent the beauty of the specimens.
I think i've a pair (judging by the anal fins).
The female, "Polly" has more than 6 years and it's huge.(more than 50 cm i think, photos are 6 month old.) The male, is smaller(like 40 cm) and thinner. I have it by like 2- 3 years by now. Unlikely it arrived by shipping almost dead.. i managed to save him(biscir's incredible thoughness help me very much) but as you can see he lost one eye in the "fight".

Now , after some problems with the old one (long story short.. i've fishes in the bath tub,lol) i'm crafting a new tank for them. (it's an 180x60x 50-70(tank has the "thummy" because it's an ex-marine tank))
With them, i've also 3 plecos and a severum..(gifts from other people) but i dont know if put tham inside the new tank.
Now.. i've two ideas for the new tank.. wich wou
ld be like a jungle of woods and plants.. pretty much the opposite.

Idea 1: put the polypterus with a bunch of very little fishes, hoping that the gap of size is such big that the biscir are barely interested by guppy killifish and co. I think it's also better in the lucky event of polypterus breeding, wich i hope i'll manage sometime.

Idea2: put polypterus + a pair of paratilapia polleni. Are fishes with similar needs. Crepuscolar Predators, not too much active and aggressive, similar food needed. Also, paratilapias are big enough to not be so crazy with poly eggs.. giving me the time to put them elsewhere.

What do you think?

Ps if you have any suggestion about get polypterus ornatipinnis breeding.. please don't be shy!

PS 2 (a big sorry for the bad english.. i assure you that I tried my best! Lol, shame on me, i've also failed in the title)

 

[tlindsey]

Welcome to MFK! Nice Ornate bichirs You could probably keep them with the Paratilapias Polleni ,but the smaller fish probably will be eaten. I like the aquascape in the pics.

 

[Hendre]

Welcome and awesome bichirs!

Polleni should work with them given they only really target other cichlids from what i have seen.

 

[Vancouver_98683]

Nice looking ornates. Most cichlid types will work in your set up. Regarding killifish and guppies. If u don't mind possibly losing a few and your replenishing with new livestock, then it'd be fine.

 

[convict360]

Hi Dr Nick!

 

[Polyaddict86]

Welcome to MFK,
Those are some beautiful ornates, most small fish will become dinner, try to look for something that is similar to their size.

 

[JurassicFrank]

Thanks Everibody!
So i think I'll try by steps.. maybe in the first time i'll add some guppyes(i have too much of them)or Gambusia(there are a lot in the streams and they are an invasive species in Italy) and see the behaviour of my ornates. In the worst case they will eat well!
In that time, maybe i'll get a small group of polleni, and grow them in the old tank (it's 150x50 cm) maybe with a pair of convict cichilids i already have.
In the bigger one.. I'll make a "strange" acquarium, something like an paludarium. The idea is to create something similar of polypterus habitat. My idea is full the acquarium with like the 50-60% of the capacity, than adding water to the 70-80% in attempt to make the polypterus spawn. As you can see i've a lot of driftwoods, so i'll try to create something like a river bank, with cyperus ,photos or other plants in the back of the tank. This will be emerged in the "dry season" and been covered by water in the wet.

 

[JurassicFrank]

Ps Adding maybe a 2-3 delhezi.. may be a good idea, even trying to reproduce the ornates, or the do better keeping only the pair?

 

[Polyaddict86]

I think adding them wont be a problem.