Are my bichirs blind or con artists?

[FarT_Rhin0]

I keep 14 of them and based on my observations i don't think they have that poor of an eyesight (definitely not blind). every time i want to feed them when i reach for the glass lid, they swim up to get the food so they can definitely see me coming.
on the other hand when they are feeding from the bottom of the tank they seem to smell the food rather than see it. Delhezis seem to be less eager to eat than Senegals, they kind of wait for the food to come to them rather than swim up and get it.

 

[Druu]

From my experience, bichirs are motion sensitive. They'll chase fish when the move and pellets when they float by. When I use frozen feeders that sink, he does not react as quickly. This can be due to their lack of color vision. When food falls to the bottom, they need to rely on their sense of smell instead and are slower to find the food.

 

[balton777]

Ok so what I gather is that some have better eyesight than others but are def not blind. Bichirs have a keen sense of smell and can sense motion so that's how they can stike the live guppy feeders so accurately. That seems to be exactly what I observed with mine. Thanks for the input you guys.

 

[oregonian]

my polys are the same w/ live food. my sen and del try to chase the feeders even though they're 2 slow and my lap hunts like a gator(my fav to watch). anyways i was thinking that due to the placement of their eyes once food hits the bottom they have to angle their body down to see food not to mention something suspended in water has much greater contrast than something against substrate

 

[cenecker]

Often when I feed my bichirs - I watch them bumble around the tank looking for the smell and I seriously wonder how the hell they survive in the wild when they take twenty minutes to find food in a six foot tank...

 

[balton777]

Often when I feed my bichirs - I watch them bumble around the tank looking for the smell and I seriously wonder how the hell they survive in the wild when they take twenty minutes to find food in a six foot tank...

That's funny. I think in the wild they can snag live food. They seem to sense motion because they can snag a guppies no prob. With pellets on the bottom is where they bumble around.

 

[futureMFK]

There are no problems with my bichir even thou she has no eyes

 

[tlindsey]

There are no problems with my bichir even thou she has no eyes

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[Deadliestviper7]

Bichirs use their lateral line for hunting living animals,their eyesight isn't used much.

 

[Catfish1542]

When my senegal and delhezi eat pellets, it's as if they're fumbling around in the dark or something. They rummage around the tank and stumble upon pellets almost by accident, like they know the pellets are in the tank but don't know exactly where.

When I put live guppies in the tank it's all different, they zero in on them and make a direct hit. My senagal just lunged halfway across the tank and gulped down a feeder fish as if he has perfect eyesight? What gives, maybe they have a super sense of smell or radar?
(I very seldom feed live btw so that's why I'm just figuring this out)
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I'm new to the hooby. But I have a Senegal with a bunch of African ciclids( witch I'm playing to get a new home for her and others#impolsbuy) and I wonder sense they relay on smell so much. If the stocking number of other fish could make it hard to distinguish from what's food and what's not.. but I have notice the longer my bichir has been in the tank. The more she strikes at the food and dosent struggle as much.