Bichir may have eaten a cory...

[Quo Vadis]

A month or so a go I bought a very small Ornate bichir. I want to eventually put it in my 700g tank, but since he was only a couple inches long I temporarily put him in a tank with corys, ropefish, eels, EN, and an African knife. I planned to move him into a growout with some baby pbass, and a dat when he had grown a bit more. I didn't think he would be able to eat the corys because even the smallest one is bigger in diameter than the bichir is. Anyway, yesterday I notice one of my smallest corys was missing a most his tail, and today I can't find that cory and my bichir has a big lump on the left side of his belly. I did only notice the lump AFTER I fed them, and he was with everyone who was eating, so it could be just the food I fed... but I don't know why it would form a weird shaped lump like that.

The bichir is acting perfectly normal, swimming, etc. Should I be worried? When should I expect the lump to go away if it isn't a cory, versus if it is? If it is the cory, will the bichir eventually just digest it, spines and all?

 

[Askaleymanfish]

If it is a fish or fish food it will digest and be gone within a day or 2 don't worry this happens a lot ... If u have rocks as it substrate it could be it swallowed a rock if the bump doesn't resolve in a couple days then u may worry a little lol but for now it's prob ok


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[Marauder225]

When I first started my grow out tank for my bichirs I had 6 panda corys in the tank, Had the same thought as you, that they weren't big enough to eat the corys yet... Slowly all 6 disappeared. No ill effects to any of my bichirs. Just keep an eye on your ornate for the next few days


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[fishnatics]

I too had the same thing happen to me with my bay endli. I put him with my 2 cories cause he was just too small to be with the marbled goby and pike cichlid. Went out of town and came home to no cories but a fat endli. A week went by and no problem with my endli. But I must say within 1 month it has doubled it's size.

 

[Dr.B]

If the cory was as big in diameter as the ornate I would doubt the ornate would've eaten it, mainly because eating a fish that is about the same diameter of a poly is hard enough as it is and with corys eating it (which usually means tail first) means you have to deal with their boney fins. However I will say a determined poly with an appetite can eat a lot of things you wouldn't have thought it could.