Did my bichir eat my kuhli loach?

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Thatfishboy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2015
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Northern indiana
So I have a 4 1/2" poly delhezi and I also have a 2" kuhli loach. My bichirs stomach is lumpy and he didn't look like that this morning. I just fed him also but he only had like three bites of beef heart. I don't care if he ate the kuhli loach but just wanted to know if it was possible.


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Well obviously it's possible. First how big is the tank? Second how much decor is in the tank? Any time I have any questions on weather or not a poly has eaten another fish, next time I do a water change I simply move the decor around and see if the missing fish is stirred up. If not then it has usually been eaten.
 
So I have a 4 1/2" poly delhezi and I also have a 2" kuhli loach. My bichirs stomach is lumpy and he didn't look like that this morning. I just fed him also but he only had like three bites of beef heart. I don't care if he ate the kuhli loach but just wanted to know if it was possible.


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A khuli loach is a perfect sized snack for a bichir, he most certainly did.
 
Probably eaten, but there are a lot of hiding places in that tank for a small Kuhli, so it might still hunkered down somewhere in there. I've heard plenty stories where people though they lost a fish only to find them months or a year later when they were moving decor or breaking down tanks.
 
I don't think your Del ate your loach because Poly is slow and your poly not extremely bigger in size compare to the Kuhli to have an easy meal on the kuhli loach, my Del is same size like your and I had smaller loaches, and other fishes like 1"~1.5" and its just leave them alone...I doubt it mouth large enough or its fast enough to 1 shot any fishes in my tank...even my 3" wolf has hard time to catch them for meal :D
*if you del like 6~8 inches then its might be a killer but not at 4.5" vs 2" Loach...poly has poor vision and extremely slow to catch any live fish unless the prey is half dead or unable to move :D
 
I don't think your Del ate your loach because Poly is slow and your poly not extremely bigger in size compare to the Kuhli to have an easy meal on the kuhli loach, my Del is same size like your and I had smaller loaches, and other fishes like 1"~1.5" and its just leave them alone...I doubt it mouth large enough or its fast enough to 1 shot any fishes in my tank...even my 3" wolf has hard time to catch them for meal :D
*if you del like 6~8 inches then its might be a killer but not at 4.5" vs 2" Loach...poly has poor vision and extremely slow to catch any live fish unless the prey is half dead or unable to move :D

....have you watched polys catch live prey before? They look slow and dumb...they aren't. My delhezi at roughly 4-5" could easily catch and eat 2-3" fathead minnows that I fed to my gar at the time and they (the minnows) are just as fast if not faster than a little khuli loach.
 
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