Gravel size?

[Monstaf1sh]

Yo!

I currently have fine sand in my tank at the moment but it is annoying me as my fish are quite large and stir it up alot i want to change my sand to black gravel, A friend of mine reckons i have to be careful when using gravel with birchirs cause they might swallow it and die! Is this true? Before i buy some gravel could someone give me some advice?

 

[unknownuza13]

Your friend is correct. I have read multiple stories on here about peoples bichirs swallowing gravel.

 

[Monstaf1sh]

Any more information or stories? I would like to read more on this topic.
Cheers

 

[CichlidsGoneWild]

I have gravel that is the size of a grain of rice. I just recently setup this gravel so I don't know if my bichir will swallow it. Based on what I'm see my bichir is pretty good with hunting down carnivore pellets from the gravel. She can differentiate a pellets from a grain of gravel. I supposed sand is your best option if you're worried about bichir eating gravels.

 

[Mudfrog]

Back when I had my bichirs I used black gravel, the common fairly big stuff from a pets store. It worked fine, the bichirs picked through it to get the pellets. Bichir's were 5" - 9" in size.