Jumping in

[thefredpit]

it's usually not hard to get them on pellets but personally I'd go the tilapia route its MUCH cheaper. If you do pellets get hikari carnivore pellets they are small and soft enough for most small polys. Also I'd put in several short lengths of pvc

 

[Arkeon]

Should the pvc be sized for them now or get it around 8 inches long and as 1.5 or 2 inch pipe?

 

[clm08k]

I have no clue of the cichlids, just know they are African. They came with a tank I got. These 3 are the only ones I could save from the **** conditions the last owner had them in.
I have drift wood already in the tank but they have dug a hole under it already. I'll have to toss in some more rocks and attach some sword to it. I know my pleco loved to hide in the plants.

If they are African cichlids.....Are you currently doing the lake Malawi salts and buffers? I'm guessing no because of the plants being alive lol.
Just want to check because some polys can be very sensitive to salt and not tolerate it well.

Welcome to the poly section. Best section.

 

[thefredpit]

Should the pvc be sized for them now or get it around 8 inches long and as 1.5 or 2 inch pipe?

I use 1.5" pipe in my tanks just make sure if the polys start getting near that thickness remove the pipe

 

[magpie]

I don't know enough about Africans... Hopefully someone else will chime in.

But I recommend floating plants for cover for settling of your fish. Even if you just chuck plants in that are t meant as floaters.

 

[Hendre]

Oh I was reading that they don't eat pellets, how hard is it too train them to switch over to that? Currently do frozen shrimp and pellets, but I jump back and forth every couple days or so.

Easy peasy for smaller ones. At that size they are almost definitely captive bred so they should already be eating pellets. So not at all difficult really, just make sure pellets get past the cichlids

 

[Arkeon]

Oh yeah the pellet usually get past them. And then they pick them off the ground most times. I'm going to be getting some water sprite off a guy who lives here and from what I have heard that grows fairly fast. I don't think I should have any salt in the tank water, lol my stupid dog got scared by thunder the other week and went and hid under my tank and broke the connector in my hose going out of my canister filter when no one was home, draining most of the tank water out.

 

[Arkeon]

It's happening today, I should be able to pick up my Delhezi today after work. If I find two that I like the look of out of the batch that came in, with they have an issue with each other? I know different types is fine which is good because I think I saw they also had albino sens in that I was thinking of getting one of. And will I have to worry about a 9" BGK eating them I'd they are only 3" or so?

 

[thefredpit]

bichirs generally get along with any other bichir that they can't eat and that can't eat them. As far as the BGK goes I'd probably separate them for a short period and feed tilapia daily to the bichirs to thicken them up to prevent them from becoming a meal

 

[Arkeon]

It's official, I now own bichir, I got 2 delhezi and one albino.