Are fish flakes a good stable diet for a baby Bichir?

[Ryan029]

So I found this awesome ornate bichir at my lfs and have been sort of 'nerding' out on these little fella's for a while so I decided to go ahead grab it. Fast forward about a month now. This thing is doing super well! Initially, I found that it would readily eat thawed out blood worms (won't touch mysis shrimp to this day for some reason). So after reading online, I have found that you really should get these things on a pellet diet of some kind for the best nutrition. My little bichir (maybe 2 inches at this point) shows great interest when I give it sinking shrimp pellets and even cichlid pellets too but even when broken up into small pieces, the bichir still seems to not be able to break them up and swallow them. After chewing on a small piece a few times it gives up and spits it out. I have also chopped up earth worms into very small pieces and the bichir can eat this, but I don't think blood worms and earth worms are a very good long-term diet.
Now I have 4 other fish in this tank (JD, juvenile red terror that's growing out in this tank, a salvini, and a small syno. cat) They all leave the bichir alone, but they leave absolutely no time for the scavenging of food. So the answer of letting the pellets set and soften up, really isn't an option, I'm thinking I'll be hand feeding this thing which is fine as far as I'm concerned.
Now to my actual question, this little bichir loves to hang out in the plants that float on the surface of my tank, which makes it super easy to hand feed it regularly. I have found that it absolutely loves these Omega one freshwater flakes I have. Almost even more than blood worms and such. But are flakes a good transition food until it gets bigger and can do pellets? The flakes are 41% crude protein and I'm worried that that is too low of a protein content for a growing baby bichir. Thoughts and advice are so greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[Vancouver_98683]

A cheaper and better protein option is cut up fz tilapia. Growth will be fast. Believe most of what you have there will ignore tilapia. ( JD, juvenile red terror, salvini, & small syno. cat )

 

[Polyaddict86]

Its better to feed hikari sinking carnivore pellet at night since its a carnivore, or yet cut some tilapia small piece and feed at night like @Vancouver _98683 mentioned.

 

[The Mother Confessor]

Polyaddict86 +1 for Hikari.

Make sure to get some vitamins in too, equally as important as protein! Hikari will have more vitamins in than your average flake,but I'm not familiar with your flake brand, I've never seen that here in the UK.

Could you not pre-soak Hikari and give it to him by hand, or drop it in once your other fish are eating? Night is a good idea. Your other fish will be fast asleep!

Don't get stuck with a fish that will only eat fish! As you say, pellets are important for nutrition, but meat is so good for protein, so don't get put off that either!

What a cutie! <3 Let us know how you get on!

 

[tlindsey]

When all my poly's were juveniles I would feed peices of pellet and rotate feedings with tilapia. I still do this with my polys now that their mature just don't feed everyday.

 

[Burbotman]

When all my poly's were juveniles I would feed peices of pellet and rotate feedings with tilapia. I still do this with my polys now that their mature just don't feed everyday.

Very good advice, mix in some smelt and prawns to the mix and you have my feeding routine. Only thing that differs from small polys to large is size of pieces and frequency

 

[jaws7777]

nice ornate !

 

[magpie]

Yes, pre-soak the pellets as suggested. To make them more appealing soak them in a little dish with a thawing bloodworm cube. Cut them up into small bites. My rope fish are still transitioning to pellets and they're less likely to spit them out when they are presoaked and easily mouth sized.

Good luck!

Oh, also, since you only have one poly, you can get frozen silversides at your LFS and cut those up into small hunks. When you have larger and more polys the tilapia makes more sense financially but the Silversides go a while when you have small guys and few. Frozen krill cut up are good, too.

 

[Ryan029]

Thanks everyone for all this great advice! As a side note, my LFS is somewhat notorious for selling mislabeled fish...They had this ornate mislabeled as a Delhezi when I found it (not sure how you mistake the two, they look so different). Anyways the price difference is about 30 bucks so I got my little Ornate for $15 Very pleased to see you all agree that it is indeed an ornate lol
So just to summarize, Hikari carnivore pellets, and frozen tilapia, should this tilapia be pre-cooked then when I buy it? Or am I looking for raw tilapia?

Polyaddict86 +1 for Hikari.

Make sure to get some vitamins in too, equally as important as protein! Hikari will have more vitamins in than your average flake,but I'm not familiar with your flake brand, I've never seen that here in the UK.

Could you not pre-soak Hikari and give it to him by hand, or drop it in once your other fish are eating? Night is a good idea. Your other fish will be fast asleep!

Don't get stuck with a fish that will only eat fish! As you say, pellets are important for nutrition, but meat is so good for protein, so don't get put off that either!

What a cutie! <3 Let us know how you get on!

Oh this note, I appreciate your advice, I've made this mistake before, currently I have a JD cichlid that simply won't touch pellets or flakes, it's a pain in the butt. I am determined to get this little poly on a pellet diet. I typically soak the food for my other fish in vitachem and garlic guard at least two to three times a week. I was hoping to get at least some vitamins to him that way, but I've got the Hikari pellets on order as well, I'll try pre-soaking them and hand feed him that way. Finally, I'm interested in getting some smelt and prawns, however I have never heard of/seen either of these items at my local stores, i'm assuming this is because I have never looked for them before though. I'm going to the store this evening to see what I can find. I'll be sure and let you know how this all turns out!

 

[magpie]

Raw fish.

You can also get different types of pellets to switch things up. In my mind variety is key. Which is why I also do frozen krill and live earthworms in the mix.