How big can they gulp? Delhezi

[Hendre]

Hi everyone. As some of you may know I lost my two Senegal bichirs this week leaving me with only a delhezi in growout. My girlfriend is going to help me shop for more but am also looking at other fish for the tank. One species I have particularly liked for a while is African Butterfly cichlids, they reach 6-8cm and are pretty chunky. Would you guys think they are safe with bichirs long run? Or rather not chance it. I'm not too sure of a dels eating ability and I don't want to find out the hard way. Thanks!

 

[BichirKing]

definitely not long term in my opinion being only 3" max. my 12" del could take it out and might kill himself in the process. if it gets hungry it might just gator roll the cichlid. I wouldn't put my curviceps in with them. just my .02

 

[Slightly Psycho Aquatics]

Often times a bichir won't realize he can't eat a fish after he's killed it. When my bichir was under 6 inches, he tried eating my danios, he took a bite out the tail of one (they're all safe now). So since butterflys are slow-moving fish they could be an easy target for the bichir.

 

[Hendre]

Thanks for the input! Looking at yellow tail spiny eels instead. Already 4-5" so they'll get a good head start if they need it