BICHIRS! BICHIRS! BICHIRS!

[PhullTank57]

nice thick healthy polys!

 

[Red Devil]

bichirs always seem fine on sand until they swallow a stone and cannot pass it/regurgitate. When feeding they use a vaccume like gulp that often includes gravel along with their food. this can, and sometimes does, lead to death. i had a foot long beutikoferi swallow a pebble almost an inch long and it was in his system for almost a week, luckely he spat it back up and is fine. better safe then sorry.

so what do you use? how do you totally prevent this.. use nothing?? Or very fine sand??

 

[RTCatz]

nice man!

 

[Infblue]

so what do you use? how do you totally prevent this.. use nothing?? Or very fine sand??

i think messiner mistyped. i think his first sentence was supposed to be "bichirs always seem fine on GRAVEL" instead of on 'sand'. if not, i apologize.

anyway, people use both gravel and sand, either is generally fine. BUT as mentioned there are instances when bichirs swallow or choke on gravel. It's a rare occurence, but it happens. so if you wanna totally prevent this but still want a substrate, sand would be the way to go (or fine crushed gravel). the idea is that the substrate needs to be small enough so it either won't lodge in the mouth or it can pass thru the system in case of swallowing.

 

[messiner]

i think messiner mistyped. i think his first sentence was supposed to be "bichirs always seem fine on GRAVEL" instead of on 'sand'. if not, i apologize.

anyway, people use both gravel and sand, either is generally fine. BUT as mentioned there are instances when bichirs swallow or choke on gravel. It's a rare occurence, but it happens. so if you wanna totally prevent this but still want a substrate, sand would be the way to go (or fine crushed gravel). the idea is that the substrate needs to be small enough so it either won't lodge in the mouth or it can pass thru the system in case of swallowing.

yup yup i meant Gravel not sand , thanks
sand is the way to go.

 

[XRAYZ]

nice bichirs. i really like the pattern on the del.

i switched to sand. i like the looks of it better also. i have seen some nice bichir tanks that have the fine crushed gravel also. chances are the gravel you have will be fine, but there is always that risk of them swollowing some and not making it why gamble..

 

[varanio]

good looking polies there my man.... now you need to find some endlies and youll have a nice looking poly species tank