hi,does anyone keep any cichlids with senegal bichirs.if so,which ones and how do they get on.thanks in advance.
cichlids and senegals ????
- Thread starter rixy
- Start date
I've kept a number of different CA's and SA's with senegals and other bichirs. some of the cichlids I"ve kept with them include red devils, red terrors, green terrors, convicts, honduran red points, zonatus, bifasciatus, synspilus, argentea, jack dempseys, texas, firemouths, robertsoni and probably several others. all of these cichlids have always ignored the bichirs unless the bichir got too close to a spawning site as happened once in my 150 gallon. I had several different cichlids and bichirs in the tank at the time, and a pair of honduran red points had spawned. one of the bichirs got too close to the spawn site and lost an eye. 
lesson learned. never keep bichirs with any type of breeding cichlids even in large community type setups. bichirs are naturally curious and will try to check out spawning nests and could as a result get injured. another thing I feel is important in keeping cichlids with bichirs is to keep at least 2 or 3 cichlids or more with the bichirs. this way they'll be more interested in defending territories from each other and should ignore the bichirs. in my 125 right now which is a little overstocked, I have a 7" female red terror, a 9" male (I think) zonatus, 3 bifasciatus ranging from 4-4.5" and 4 bichirs (palmas polli, palmas buttikoferi, ornatipinnis and delhezi). the female red terror owns 1/2 of the 125 gallon and won't let another cichlid on her half of the tank but the bichirs swim all over her half and she couldn't care less. 
lesson learned. never keep bichirs with any type of breeding cichlids even in large community type setups. bichirs are naturally curious and will try to check out spawning nests and could as a result get injured. another thing I feel is important in keeping cichlids with bichirs is to keep at least 2 or 3 cichlids or more with the bichirs. this way they'll be more interested in defending territories from each other and should ignore the bichirs. in my 125 right now which is a little overstocked, I have a 7" female red terror, a 9" male (I think) zonatus, 3 bifasciatus ranging from 4-4.5" and 4 bichirs (palmas polli, palmas buttikoferi, ornatipinnis and delhezi). the female red terror owns 1/2 of the 125 gallon and won't let another cichlid on her half of the tank but the bichirs swim all over her half and she couldn't care less.