an endli with an albino senegal ?! (newbie)

[flowerhornfishman]

ive been watching these albino senegals for a while and planning to buy one. but is it okay to add it with my endli (4") ? im worried tht my endli had already built up a territory and might beat up the senegal. he's been alone for a while probably a month i guess. my endli is in a 65g growout tank. what do u guys think?

 

[baconmeupscotty]

I've never seen territorial behavior in my polys, some people will say to go bare tank to avoid it but mine is densely planted/decorated so everyone has a spot. The only aggression I've seen is at meal time. How large is the albino? It should be fine if there isn't a huge size difference..but bear in mind that endli is going to continue to grow while the albino won't get past 6 or so inches; the genetics on cb albino sens are terrible

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[flowerhornfishman]

i put sand, some rocks and a big driftwood in his tank. i think the albino is about 4" as well.
ooops, i didnt know albino only grow tht big. so, how can tht be a problem? the endli can eat/hurt the albino?

 

[quasar]

i put sand, some rocks and a big driftwood in his tank. i think the albino is about 4" as well.
ooops, i didnt know albino only grow tht big. so, how can tht be a problem? the endli can eat/hurt the albino?

Endli's can get pretty big. Like 4x the size of the sen estimate u got. In the wild they can get to 30", but i don't know how common that is in captivity. So basically if the size difference ever gets big enough and the endli feels like it, it maybe could eat the sen. I had a 5" sen eat the head off of a 2" albino sen......granted this sen was an aggressive psyco

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[flowerhornfishman]

gosh, tht's terrible. guess i have to cancel my plan to buy one. thanks though, i'll probably buy the palma poly.

 

[-DC-]

Both Senegal and palmas polli are much smaller species then endlies, with that said they should be fine as long as size difference isn't too drastic.

As long as they are roughly the same size now you'll be fine. Yes the endlie will get bigger eventually, but by then the others will have also grown and adult endlie wont eat an adult Senegal or polli even with the size difference.

Bichirs actually seem more comfortable in groups even of mixed species and sizes. They will all pile together. When they mature they might nip at each other a bit over food/mates/choice sitting spot but they are not an aggressive species, and I wouldn't call them territorial because even when disputes break out between my big ones all it is is a nip to nudge someone out of a preferred sitting spot, everyone lets the big guy shuffle into place and they all settle back down into a pile!

Hope that helps.

 

[Aw3s0m3]

As long as they are roughly the same size now you'll be fine. Yes the endlie will get bigger eventually, but by then the others will have also grown and adult endlie wont eat an adult Senegal or polli even with the size difference.

I'm challenging you on this. My 14" endli ate an 8" sen. And before that when it was 12", it ate a 7" sen. I've also heard stories of other's endli's eating sens, or other polys.


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[Dr.B]

I think they'll be fine. In my opinion it's better to grow them out when they are small together than to throw the sen in when the endli is already huge. As long as you keep the big one fed well is should be fine and shouldn't try to eat the albino sen. However the behavior seems to vary between individuals and if the endli starts to get size on the sen then you want to start watching out for nipping etc.., There are a couple members on here that keep larger LJ polys with small UJ polys and they don't have a lot of problems if the big guys are well fed.

 

[-DC-]

Oh it's completely possible , but like I said a large endlie wont likely eat an ADULT Senegal, i also said fine as juvies as long as the difference in size is not too drastic. Stick a bichir in with an endlie twice the size then ya it could eat a smaller bichir and probably would as soon as it's hungry!

Bichirs are more fragile when small, it's more important to watch difference in size when young sizes. However in my experience at ~ the 10" mark they bulk up a bit and from that point on are fine with even the biggest of bichirs. My endlies are 20 & 22 inches, and live with 10" bichirs, smallest I've dared introduced was an ornate at 8-9" , that's border line but had no choice because it hit the size where it was eyeballing the smaller 4-5" senegals and del's in my growout and it turned out fine.

It's when young that they have the greatest risk of eating other bichirs, they are so thin and narrow that sizes that they should be kept with others of similar size. But once they top the 10" mark most species have enough bulk that they all get along fine with larger bichirs.( EDIT: mis spoke, not in all cases because even long rope fish are still quite thin, they live full time in the growout tank)

It's just my experience with them, I keep Ornates, Senegals, Del's, Endlies, Lap's and rope fish , and in all cases I found that it's around 10" where they are big/bulky enough to be recognized as other bichirs and not prey.

of course with all that said your dealing with a predatory fish, if if hungry enough they can turn on each other, and other factors like factors like if they have be fed live, or if they've been kept solo and you drop a smaller fish in from of them, it will also increase the odds of one eating the other.