Bichir - How Low is Too Low?

ZooMed Lowboy for a Senegal Bichir??

  • NO WAY!

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Hendre

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Perfect then! How high is that lid compared to the water level?
 
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CrazyKoiCracker

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Perfect then! How high is that lid compared to the water level?
A couple inches clearance. 10” height total height. 8 inches of water? One inch of sand maybe, maybe not. May do barebottom with a bottom drain to keep it clean, may drill in from the side. Undecided. I’d like some sand or smooth small gravel for them, or I may just build up some substrate on one side, since it’s such a low aquarium it’s ideal for growing a carpet.
Bare bottom and unlit on one side with drift wood caves. (You’ve gotta see this piece of drift wood I found, it’s practically a cave, once I have the tank set up I’ll pull it out of the koi pond and share some photos) Shallow substrate and some bright LED’s on the other, and a nice jungle of Java ferns and anubias and a Monte Carlo carpet or something, or maybe not, I’m not good enough with aquarium plants yet to be able to confidently promise any kind of carpet.
I started rambling. Let’s confidently say one or two inches between water and screen lid.
 
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Hendre

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That's good then, enough for breathing.

Carpets will necessitate co2 and lots of other nonsense usually, or at least lighting that may bother a poly. I think a sandy substrate with some decor and rhizome plants will do just fine.
 
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CrazyKoiCracker

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Yeah I’m aware of the challenge involved in carpeting, so far my attempts with micro sword in a guppy tank resulted in a diatom algae bloom, the guppies cleaned it up pretty fast, but I definitely understand that’s a long shot st best. Monte Carlo is one of the easier carpet plants though And I’m thinking that a corner with high light and a root tab or two may do the trick since the water will be so shallow, plants will be close to the light. This would of course be isolated to just one corner of the tank. I know they (bichirs) like the dark, but honestly I just love the idea of a Bichir gliding through/over a carpet, day or night. If it doesn’t carpet then I’m certainly not going to go hightech. I care much more about the fish than the plants. At the very least I plan on growing a driftwood jungle with plenty of Low light plants. EEEEEE SO EXCITED. My problem now though is, it seems no one carries the lowboy tanks in my area and no one will ship them because of the dimensions making them fragile by nature. 48x24x10 untempered.
 
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CrazyKoiCracker

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May end up buying cell cast acrylic and trying my hand at making my own. Anyone have personal experience in building your own acrylic aquarium?
 

Hendre

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Acrylic tanks can be made, probably best to head to "Setup and filtration" ;)
 
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CrazyKoiCracker

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Sounds interesting. But I imagine that would be used as a lower layer and then capped with another substrate? Idk. I’ll have to look into it. I know worm castings are like the absolute best soil for most terrestrial plants.
Also, good news. My LFS can, and did order the lowboy tank for me. Barely no one would ship it but they’ve got it on the way. Eta, Thursday. Then give myself a week or two to plumb, scape, and let my bank account recover from all my recent spending. (Maybe a month, now that I consider the bills coming in) and I’ll go Senegal hunting.
Thoughts on tank mates?
Keep in mind the dimensions.
48” Long. 24” Wide. 10” Tall.
More Bichir obviously.
Ropefish?
Would ghost knifes be too big?
I like the look of African butterfly fish. But from what I hear they can be picky eaters.
My uncle has a soldier fly farm, Are those larva ok for butterfly fish?
I’ve got a million questions that I could just as easily google. And before I take any final steps I obviously will. But search engines are such big lonely places and anyone with experience in any of these fields is a great resource.
 
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