Bichir ages

[JamesF]

Bichir lifespans come up fairly regularly here, so I thought I'd start a poll on how old some of the older bichirs are on here.
Let us know the species in a post.
My oldest is my ornate bought just after Christmas in 99.

 

[Nim Dibbley]

I only started keeping bichirs about 4 years ago and the first one i got was pretty small so it couldnt be that old. I am curious to see who has the oldest bichir and how long it has been around.

 

[Marauder225]

Bichir lifespans come up fairly regularly here, so I thought I'd start a poll on how old some of the older bichirs are on here.
Let us know the species in a post.
My oldest is my ornate bought just after Christmas in 99.

I've only been keeping bichirs about 2 years now so nothing special here on age. How large is your ornate from 99?


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[JamesF]

She maxed out at 18".
I'm pretty sure there are more than 2 bichirs living in members tanks that are over 10 years old though.

 

[Dr.B]

I don't think it's that their isn't, but that people don't know. Especially with all these large WC polys theres bound to be a couple that are very large, but with no accurate way to tell (with the poly alive) you can't exactly say. Another thing is that polys often change different owners. So even if the first owner knows how old it is the second or possibly third may not know or care.

 

[Marauder225]

I don't think it's that their isn't, but that people don't know. Especially with all these large WC polys theres bound to be a couple that are very large, but with no accurate way to tell (with the poly alive) you can't exactly say. Another thing is that polys often change different owners. So even if the first owner knows how old it is the second or possibly third may not know or care.

+1. Alot of the wild caught bichirs, there is no way to tell the true age. from what I've noticed the captive bred polys don't have the same appeal to some of the people on here. They'd rather have the wild caught with the better genetic lines and potential to be huge. Not saying that CB polys aren't going to be big and healthy tho. Mine are all CB.


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[JamesF]

There are still lots of people on here with old bichirs that they've had for most of their lives. TGM and Hao come to mind. My ornate I only count the years I've had her, which is 14.5. She was 3" when I got her, so she's closer to 15 now. Wild caught bichirs would have a much more uniform growth, so it's age at capture can still be estimated. I'm not looking for exact specific ages here, just trying to compile a list of some of the older specimens to see what the average age they can reach in captivity seems to be.

 

[Marauder225]

It would be pretty cool to see what the average is and if enough people actually respond with enough information to see if it varies by species as well.


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[BuffaloPolypteridae]

Ive just gotten back to fishkeeping a little over a year ago but still got the first fish I bought, Ornate bichir, got it at about 2-3 inch now its just over a year so nothing much to contribute there.

Just wanted to ask (this being a thread on age and all) if anyone knows where the Otolith bone is in bichirs? The one used to age fish, if people could age dead specimens more accuratley we could get a better understanding of how old some of these WCs are when they are caught large and then kept long term by us. Im sure some of the guys on here have long term captives that came in big

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[JamesF]

The otolith is located in the head. It's part of the inner ear and will vary in location by species. There should be diagrams online that show it.