Bichir tank planning

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I might not be dead set on the ornate, just looking on live aquaria and they only showed 4 types, and I liked the look of them the most. Lol doing off their pictures. And then they did not give much info, hence hunting down this forum to ask more knowledgeable crowd.

Reason I'm doing white sand is the wife wants it. I don't care much for cichlids. Live plants I enjoy more then fake, plus they do help with the water a little.

Sorry at work and don't really have the time to read the links, but what's the difference with upper and lower jaw classification? The substrate changes their color to pop more, would having different colored plants help do the same thing then?

If I were to get a few bichir but smaller then I would be fine with some other smaller fish. Yes, I meant the denison barb.
 
I might not be dead set on the ornate, just looking on live aquaria and they only showed 4 types, and I liked the look of them the most. Lol doing off their pictures. And then they did not give much info, hence hunting down this forum to ask more knowledgeable crowd.

Reason I'm doing white sand is the wife wants it. I don't care much for cichlids. Live plants I enjoy more then fake, plus they do help with the water a little.

Sorry at work and don't really have the time to read the links, but what's the difference with upper and lower jaw classification? The substrate changes their color to pop more, would having different colored plants help do the same thing then?

If I were to get a few bichir but smaller then I would be fine with some other smaller fish. Yes, I meant the denison barb.
 
Arkeon said:
I might not be dead set on the ornate, just looking on live aquaria and they only showed 4 types, and I liked the look of them the most. Lol doing off their pictures. And then they did not give much info, hence hunting down this forum to ask more knowledgeable crowd.

Reason I'm doing white sand is the wife wants it. I don't care much for cichlids. Live plants I enjoy more then fake, plus they do help with the water a little.

Sorry at work and don't really have the time to read the links, but what's the difference with upper and lower jaw classification? The substrate changes their color to pop more, would having different colored plants help do the same thing then?

If I were to get a few bichir but smaller then I would be fine with some other smaller fish. Yes, I meant the denison barb.
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I am on my 2nd ornate and the 1st one was a jackass but the second one isn't.....yet but he is the smallest. I love my Teugelsi and she is probably my favorite you might also look at ropefish. They do great in groups and have smaller mouths plus they love planted tanks you just have to make sure you have a tight lid on it
 
Bichirs live on the bottom, which is why the substrate affects their coloring so much. Plants won't really affect that. White just isn't ideal but if you're stuck on white maybe you should go with.... Delhezi? The Delhezi have stripes so being washed out might not affect them as much. I really think your ornate on white substrate wouldn't show as much contrast but maybe I'm wrong.

You should take some time when you have it to look at the link with the different species - there are many places to buy polys online outside of live aquaria.

If you are set on white substrate you can't go by the look of the pictures for the poly you want necessarily....

Maybe some others will chime in - who has seen polys on white substrate that hold nice patterning? Maybe we can narrow down his species that way.

Also, someone will come along and show you some images of the same fish on different substrates and how much it can affect how they look.
 
Just did a quick search for you and found these pics of J jaws7777 Congi, tan vs. garnet sand. This is a light colored Congi to begin with but it just gives you an idea of what people are talking about.

downloadfile-43.jpg 2017-01-29 14.58.31.jpg

But maybe others know of ornates on different substrates.... I haven't been here all that long. :)
 
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Agree with everything mags posted. If white sand is a must and op wamts to keep smaller tankmates then maybe forget about the larger growers like lower jaws and the big 3 upper jaws (ornate, weeksii, amd teug)

Look at the smaller upper jaws like dels, mokes, palmas palmas, palmas polli, sens, retro, amd gold dust.

White sand didnt effect my upper jaws as much as it did the lower jaws
 
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All my uppers were on pfs and they didn't have any color deficiencies. Get moke, polli, sens- albino and regular, golddust, palmas. Dels are great I have 2 but they get kinda big and pretty sure mine have eaten a couple fish.
 
As most people mentioned above, ornate gets hige but you can still do a planted tank for them, most people would tie the plant in a rock or driftwood, suction cup is also a option.

I dont really reccomend small fish with polys since they hunt at night when lights are of and other fish goes to sleep mode, but their are alot of fish that can go with big polys live silver dollar and big cichlids, some pike like odoe pike or yellowtail baraccuda can be a good tank mate as well, just make sure that they are big enough not to get eaten. Also a datnoid and pbass are good tankmates.
 
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