Feeding suggestion for 5 inch senegal

[courtneylm]

Hello all,

I am new to keeping bichirs, and I'm looking for suggestions on a varied diet for my senegal. I've been feeding him carnivore pellets but he doesn't seem to be growing very fast, plus I'd like to give him more of a variety. I read you can feed them earthworms but I feel like he's too small still. What do you guys recommend?

 

[Rocksor]

cut up pieces of fish fillet or cut up pieces of very small silversides. The reason for silversides is that it has scales, organs, bone with flesh and makes it more of a complete meal than just fish fillet.

If you have a reliable source of live blackworms that will work as well. I like to use vibra bites versus breaking chunks of carnivore.

Keep in mind that growth is greatly affected by how much the bichir wants to eat.

 

[courtneylm]

cut up pieces of fish fillet or cut up pieces of very small silversides. The reason for silversides is that it has scales, organs, bone with flesh and makes it more of a complete meal than just fish fillet.

If you have a reliable source of live blackworms that will work as well. I like to use vibra bites versus breaking chunks of carnivore.

Keep in mind that growth is greatly affected by how much the bichir wants to eat.

He seems to really want to eat lol. Every time I feed him he goes straight for the food and eats several pellets (idk how much is "normal" for his size) and I feed twice a day. I put shrimp pellets in too but I think they're too hard for him. I've had him for about 3 months and he's only grown about an inch I think, husband doesn't think he's grown at all but it's hard to tell when you look at him every day. I honestly don't care how fast he grows as long as it's not a problem, I just wanna make sure he's being taken care of properly.

 

[tlindsey]

read you can feed them earthworms but I feel like he's too small still. What do you guys recommend?

Red wigglers are smaller Bichir go nuts when they smell them ? Two Bichir will do the death roll with a earthworm.

 

[courtneylm]

Red wigglers are smaller Bichir go nuts when they smell them ? Two Bichir will do the death roll with a earthworm.

I would love to see them do a death roll ? unfortunately I only have one so I won't be so lucky haha. I will try to find some red wigglers, thank you!

 

[NCStateFisher]

1 carnivore pellet per inch of fish per day and regular water changes and he should grow like a weed for a couple more inches then slow down

all of the suggestions above are good, tilapia fillet, silversides, raw shrimp, earthworm chunks etc

 

[Krismo962]

Chopped worms,squid,a few different types of fish,convict cichlid fry and carnivore pellets is what i fed mine.They grew pretty fast on that diet and 3-5x >80% water changes a week.

 

[twentyleagues]

You can feed all those options but a good quality pellet is best for nutrition.

 

[bathawk]

To me they seem to have a growth spurt I have a 8 year plus cb senegal just touching 9 inches and a juvenile wc almost 9 inches they are very greedy and are the first to the food I dropped in some pellets yesterday and my cb senegal caught and ate some pelets before they hit the bottom.I feed them earth worms shrimp squid they eat anytthing. If you want to see the death roll you can feed long earth worms they will do the roll trying to rip the worms apart yes they go wild for earth worms.