Tankmates for Bichir
- Thread starter Cichlidsforlife
- Start date
Wet Spot has them. Look under the Central American section, they are now called:
Oscura heterospila
http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=116
They are relatively peaceful and rare for them to get above about 9", so it should work out in what you are proposing.
Here is my male that is probably about 7.5 to 8" now.
If I got a 90 gallon would that change anything about the cichlid tankmate I would have with my bichir?
If you did an all bichir tank you could do many more than two. You could even do several of them if you chose smaller tankmates than the cichlids you're proposing.
A 90 gallon doesn't change a whole lot, maybe waters down the bioload a bit - it's just a little taller but the length and width are the same. Going to a tank that is 5-6 feet long is what will give you more freedom in your fish choices.
If you do go with the heterospila, wet spot's are very small and have a rep for growing slowly as well. You'd have to be careful when intoducing polys (what we call bichirs here, short for their scientific name) so that they wouldn't be eaten. You'd have to size match appropriately or have a growout tank planned. Or get them first, and let them grow before adding the polys.
A 90 gallon doesn't change a whole lot, maybe waters down the bioload a bit - it's just a little taller but the length and width are the same. Going to a tank that is 5-6 feet long is what will give you more freedom in your fish choices.
If you do go with the heterospila, wet spot's are very small and have a rep for growing slowly as well. You'd have to be careful when intoducing polys (what we call bichirs here, short for their scientific name) so that they wouldn't be eaten. You'd have to size match appropriately or have a growout tank planned. Or get them first, and let them grow before adding the polys.
How fast do bichirs grow? I might keep a beuttikoferi or a Senegal with a colorful severum or a oscura heterospilus and I plan to have them grow up together. Could I do two bichirs and one blue acara? Would they both eat carnivore pellets
Cichlids and bichir have a very structured hierarchy, or 'pecking order'. While it may look good on paper the fact is you wont know if it will work until the fish are in place. It does seem to help if the fish are grown out together but this does not always make the combo work. Usually a dominate cichlid or bichir can make it rough on the others so that is why you see a lot of us keeping five or more bichirs because the aggression seems to be spread out a bit better.
The larger the footprint the better the chance for them to get along.... Are you able to do a 6ft 125g tank?
