Birchir eating habits

[paintballborg]

I got a small birchir (4") about a week ago and he's adjusted well to the community. However, I can't quite pin down his eating habits. I usually feed him bloodworms once per day, about an hour after I turn off the lights. I've noticed that some nights he'll eat a lot of worms and other nights he'll eat one or two and ignore the rest. Just wondering if they eat every other day or once a week or once a day etc.

Here's his room mates:
6 tiger barbs
2 green tiger barbs
2 rosy barbs
3 giant danios
3 silver dollars
2 striped raphael
1 bumble bee catfish

55gal

 

[pophead]

I feed mine about 5 days a week(to a max of once a day) and they are both 9" long. one of my bichers will find the food more quickly, the other(which is fatter) won't eat much at all, sometimes he just misses out. I haven't kept bichers for very long, but I have seen that they have very different eating habits.
try feeding them different food, my fatter bicher will be the first at the food if I put plankton in the tank, but last to it if I put hikari carniverous pellets in.

 

[is300zx]

Bichirs are predatory fish. I see you have yours in a community set up. Don't be surprised if you see some of your smaller fishes disappear as it grows bigger. Also eating habits depends a lot on the personality of the bichir. Some bichirs tend to stuff themselves till their bellies are about to explode and then eat again a few hours later. While some won't even touch food even if it drops on top of their heads. You should try offering it other kinds of food. Check out the bichir subforum or just do a search.

 

[Hartzell]

How big is your bumblebee? They are predators, and may eat your 4" bichir.

 

[paintballborg]

The bumble bee is only 1.5" right now so I'm not too worried about him. Just an update: the birchir is eating on a very regular basis now. I've dug up some worms from the yard and he loves them. I've never seen a fish more violent when eating! If he sees the worm he'll strike and then shake it like a dog. It's very entertaining. I'm constantly amazed at the size of worms he can put away. Most are usually bigger than he is.