Best way to feed bichirs in a crowded community tank?

[m1ste2tea]

depending on your own schedule, feed the bichir approx 2 hours after you turn off your tank light, and any other light next to it. By this time most types of fish will be in their "sleep" mode (except of course other nocturnals). Drop the food at the same spot, or let it float, hugging a certain corner of the tank, it will learn where to come looking. Bichir may not see well but it will quickly smell its food in the water. mine goes nuts sniffing the substrate as soon as I drop in his food.

btw how big is your bichir?

 

[jschall]

I have a 100 g community tank with an arowana, a red severum, a uaru and other quick fish.

I bought a palmas polli bichir and I want to fatten him up, but it's hard to give him a lot of pellets/worms when my other fish are so quick to get the food first.

I've given him sinking pellets and other food that sinks, but my other fish usually gobble it all up before it even gets close to hitting the ground. I've also tried putting my hand in the tank to drop food close to my bichir, but my other fish see it and get to it first. It's bad because my bichir has to smell the food for a few seconds before he bites it and most of the time it's too late.

I was just wondering, what is the best way to fatten up my bichir in a community tank like this?

Get a tube (pvc pipe works), lower it down to the bottom of your aquarium, and drop your food through it. Use the tube to chase any non-bichirs away. My bichirs quickly learned to gather round the tube to eat. You can also feed flake food to other fish while doing this.

 

[knuckles04]

feed em' live shrimps