Feeding - How often?

[pytonson]

How often do you feed your bichirs? And with what?

I feed my once a day, usually afternoon, when I come home from work. And nothing under the weekends when I am att the summer house.
I mainly feed them shrimps and sometimes thawed rat puppies, that the snakes has turn down.

The reason for my Q is, my Senegalus doesn´t grow, while my endli end, bought much later as a fry, is about 4-5 times bigger now. Endli is a bigger species, but I think the senegals should grow someting.

 

[l3raD]

Hmm sorry cant help ya on that one.. I would say your feeding is Pretty right.
You say he isnt growing in length?
How long you had him?

 

[beblondie]

FEEDING & NUTRITION
Now that you have a bichir what does it eat? In their natural habitat bichirs normally eat small fish,various insect larvae and invertabrates.Bichirs are generaly non agressive ambush predators but also oppurtunistic scavengers.Objects to big to be consumed whole are often "deathrolled" till
small parts are twisted and ripped off the carcass.The key here is to balance the diet thru a variety
of foods with an eye on total nutrition.A varied diet is a good diet for your fish and yourself.
Now then what can we feed them? You actually have several options and They will be listed below
The freezer at your local fish store is a smorgasboard of foods which should include
silversides or lancefish
mysis shrimp
brine shrimp
krill
bloodworms
tubifex worms
squid
beefheart
Simply thaw and feed


Your local market can be a great source of foods check the seafood section of the freezer
You can use just about any foods you find there including
mussels
shrimp
most fish filets (avoid salmon i think its to oily)

Available at the butcher counter or they should be able to order it for you
beefheart
and yes chicken gizzards
to prepare the above cut it into strips and remove any fat you can find
fish do not digest mammialian fat well

Live foods include
some frog species(some frogs release a nasty chemical when bitten)
tadpoles
African dwarf frogs are safe and part of the natural diet
ghost shrimp
earthworms
mealworms feed only the recently shed(white) ones the chiton in the exoskeleton
can be hard to digest and in some can result in intestinal blockages.
There is really no reason to feeders except as the ocassional treat.
Various live fish and fry can be used for foods.Caution here unless you raise them
any commercialy bought feeders usually rosie reds/tuffies (the albino form of fat head minnows),
guppies,bait minnows etc.need to be quarantined before feeding them to your fish for several reasons.
reason 1 They are kept in horrible conditions
reason 2 They are often diseased
reason 3 They often are carriers of parasites
During quarantine dispose of the obviously sick or diseased.The remaining ones feed quality
foods a healthy feeder is of course better for your fish.
Goldfish just generaly are poor feeders and should be avoided. they are oily not very nutritious and constant feed of them causes faty deposits on the liver leading to premature deaths.They also contain very high levels of Thiaminase a destroying hormone.While many fish used as feeders contain this goldfish seem to have an abundance of it.Another issue is a spine at the front of the dorsal fin which can lead to problems if the goldfish is swollowed the wrong way (tailfirst).Yet another reason not to use goldfish,goldfish farms utilize copper meds in suspension form to combat diseases in the feeders associated with overcrowding.These copper meds are retained by the feeders for long periods after they leave the farms.Most lfs invariably retain all or part of the feeders shipping water when the feeders are loaded into their bins/tanks. And copper does not dissapate from a closed system.
The key is to balance the diet with a variety of foods listed above not just 1 or 2 items and skipping a meal once you notice a decline in growth rate is good for fish.The sad truth is we as hobbyists tend to overfeed our charges

Pellitized foods
Can be found in various diameters and forms include sinking and floating pellets and sticks
shrimp pellets
worm pellets
even pellets for cichlids will work
spirulina sticks
brine shrimp sticks
Algae wafers(some eat them some just look at them)

When feeding pellets how much to feed?
Under 7''I let them eat as much as they want several small feedings when young are better then 1 or 2 large feedings.I let juvies eat till theres a slight bulge to there bellies
This really applies to bichirs 7''+ I feed mine twice a day skipping at least one day a week
Approx. 80% of their diet is a quality pellet food the rest frozen with the ocassional live feeders after quarantine of course.
How manyPellets?
I start off with total 2 pellets per inch of fish eg. a 7'' fish gets 7 pellets in the A.M. and 7 in the evening feeding is then adjusted up or down so all pellets are consumed.Remember a nice round bichir is a happy bichir

Read the labels and look for this information
NUTRITION FOR CARNIVORES
Below are the agreed upon nutritional requirements for predatory fish
PROTEIN:: 45% or more (this would be the ideal)
FAT:: 3% Min. to 6% Max.
FIBER 2% Min. to 4% Max

 

[pytonson]

Thanx for your replys.

The feeding it self is not a problem, because they are first at the diner table, but they are the most active swimmers, so maybe they burn everything the eat. I may have had them for three years now and they are about 5".

I have tried different kind of food and shrimps works best for them all. Not all will eat beefheart, krill or fish fillet (Bass). I have chicken hearts and will try it now and see how it works.

 

[dbcb314]

I feed my main tank every 3rd day

grow outs get fed every day, 2x a day

 

[skillzizzo]

this is the best responce out of any what to feed my fish i have ever seen on this site good info should be a birchir sticky as far as i'm concerned.

Sincerely

Jeffrey allen Braley

 

[beblondie]

its in the primer if I stickied everything individually the stickie section would take a cpl of pages lol

 

[uwe]

Hi,

i'm feeding mine one or two times a week ...
... yes, i'm feeding not often but plenty!

I'm keeping bichirs over 8 years and i think to have a "feeling" when it's time for dinner ... the bichirs don't chill around and seeking ...

Mine like most: feeder fish! We are freshwater-fish-fans and our dinner is also the bichir's dinner - so they get not only these feeders for aquaristic use, they also get pike, perch etc. ... but NEVER oily fish (salmo salar to name one) to keep the tank clean.

Additional feeding is:
sturgeon pellets
earth worms (after the rain)

Greetings

Uwe

 

[moonchild1970]

I feed mine about every other day. That's all they are hungry for. I would also urge you to diversify their diet alot more.