this may be a long one I have had some nipping from my wc senegal. Mid july I put my ornate in my 90 gallon with my other bichirs at that time he was the smallest come october he is second biggest my female wc poli poli isabout 11 inches. When the ornate first went in my 90 gallon my wc senegal attacked the ornate twice. Now my ornate also attempts to bite my female poli poli and my cb female senegal the male wc senegal is about 9 icnes the ornate is now bigger .MY male ornate and senegal go after the female bichirs but do not attack each other I noticed the ornate sniff the poli poli before attempting to bite it it will also sniff my male senegal then both back off and go in different directions. The ornate is going to go into my 240 in the near future but was wondering what is going on.
bichir behaviou
- Thread starter bathawk
- Start date
Dont know what your tanks look like but my senegal and ornate get along great given they grew up together and have different spots in the tank they like, looks like you have many more than I but i would say water quality, water temp, not enough food or not enough hard scape to distract them, ect. if not those maybe you just have some aggressive bichir ive been lucky to keep such docile fish even though i feed live from time to time.
I feed them every other day with me my male bichirs seem to be the issue my 9 year old female senegal has lived my female poli poli for 5 years with out any issues my male senegal and male ornate are the new commers and the trouble makers the ornate is going into my 240 anyway just want him to get a bit bigger although at the moment the ornate is growing like a weed and rapidly catching up with my 11 inch polli polli may put the male senegal in there as well and move him when the ornate gets big other wise he could become lunch for the ornate.
maybe the females are making the males act out more? I feel you though I am kinda nervous for my senegal and might have to separate them simply because of the size difference.
yes I have seen post on here about ornates eating senegals although I think the ornates have to very big to do it how big is the ornate. I managed to put a tape measure by may ornate while it was resting by the glass it is now 10 inches the fastes growth I have seen in any bichir I have had I bought it in january at 4.5 inches.
I wonder if what you're describing is a display of the bichirs establishing a "pecking order" in your tank; personally, I've never really witnessed anything like what you describe, but then again, I've never really kept a large group of bichirs exclusively in one tank. I don't know enough about the social behavior of polypterids to come up with an accurate conclusion, but I have heard that bichirs establish a rudimentary hierarchy system in smaller tanks. Then again, your bichirs might just be fighting for whatever reason. Sorry for the vagueness of my response.
possible, the 2 agressors are the newest to the tank and both males 7 years ago I had a large male senegal it used to attack my catfish and even rope fish I sold it in the end. the ornate will in to my 240 once it gets a bit bigger. Shortly after I took this picture he chased the polli polli across the tank that polli is 11 inches the ornate ia almost as big at the end of august this ornate was a little under 8 inches will soon be time to move him.
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