Ornate Bichir Diet

[Kenta]

beblondie once again u tha man, always have great info thanks for the help.

Beblondie!!! When did you get the sex change???

 

[Gooda]

How long does a 1 Kg bag of the hikari pellets last? I know the rate is going to vary on the number of Bichirs that you have and their size, duh, but can any one give me a ball park estamate before I blow $50 on this stuff?

 

[JamesF]

I've recently started feeding my ornates, lapredeiis and senegals HBH Super Soft Krill Pellets. They love them They're a soft pellet so they're quite easy for them to eat.
Beefheart, ghost shrimp, shrimp pellets, frozen shrimp, and earthworms are still added.

 

[Alien]

To my opinnion, they are the most agressive and voracious polypterus, I know.

They will for sure eat every fish up to half their bodylenght, unless its a really rough cichlid.

You can feed them with shrimp, smelts and worms at the beginning, later on, I recommend buying frozen sardines. Also all kind of livebearing fish or goldfish will be good live fish. Hunting for them is a natural behavior, which You should not suppress. So feed them some live fish from time to time., although it my seem cruel. Most fish breeders have fish, which is somehow bad coloured or cripled, which they will sell for a minimum price.

Best greetings
Thomas

 

[ddp3]

what is a good starter tank for 4' ornate bichir?

 

[Mr_Fantasy]

To my opinnion, they are the most agressive and voracious polypterus, I know.

They will for sure eat every fish up to half their bodylenght, unless its a really rough cichlid.

-- I agree totally. Ornates are quick to their food, unlike some of the lower jaw species, and they can really eat a lot! And somehow, they seem to have a 'bigger' and more 'flexible' mouth than others--i noticed that they can swallow big chunks of food more easily, compared to another species of a bigger size.

Currently i've this 12" Ornate, which i've kept since it was 3". It's really thick and despite its size, it's colouring is still sharp and superb (usu the colouring will fade as the ornate grows), My favourite bichir.

I feed my bichirs once a day with a staple of Hikari massivore pellets, carnivorous pellets, and Lionhead sinking pellets, with the occasional swordtails. But actually they'll do fine just solely on good pellets.

From my experience with live food, you really have to observe the water quality very carefully..if you are not careful, the bichirs may get sores and other illnesses very easily.

 

[Jonathan Robinson]

I have two ornate bichirs in a mixed 170 gallon tank (small oscars, jaguars, arowana and a few other fish) . It's a struggle to get most live food past the oscars and jaguars, but I've found much to my surprise that they both love algae wafers. They'll almost ignore shrimp, but go nuts for the wafers. Could I possibly have the world's first vegetarian bichirs?! I'll have to rename them Sir Paul and Linda!

 

[jaws7777]

I have two ornate bichirs in a mixed 170 gallon tank (small oscars, jaguars, arowana and a few other fish) . It's a struggle to get most live food past the oscars and jaguars, but I've found much to my surprise that they both love algae wafers. They'll almost ignore shrimp, but go nuts for the wafers. Could I possibly have the world's first vegetarian bichirs?! I'll have to rename them Sir Paul and Linda!

Its great that they are eating but the algae wafer may not contain enough protien to get them to.their full potential

 

[Polyaddict86]

I have two ornate bichirs in a mixed 170 gallon tank (small oscars, jaguars, arowana and a few other fish) . It's a struggle to get most live food past the oscars and jaguars, but I've found much to my surprise that they both love algae wafers. They'll almost ignore shrimp, but go nuts for the wafers. Could I possibly have the world's first vegetarian bichirs?! I'll have to rename them Sir Paul and Linda!

Thats alot of competition on feeding, try to feed them during night when all lights are off.

 

[Jonathan Robinson]

I do try to feed more once the lights are dimmed. They are certainly more active then. It's just interesting that of all the things I've put in (worms, maggots, crickets, shrimp (both live and frozen), chopped fish, cichlid pellets and algae wafers), it's the algae wafers they seem to love the most!