I got my first senegal!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
deffinately addictive.. I have 2 sens 'n everytime I walk into petsmart I check out their new ones. But I'm behaving myself. Thankfully I haven't come across any other Bichirs at the LFS near me. Or i'de prolly have an ornate, del, or endli by now as well or 2!.. but yeah expect your guy to start eating shirmp, 'n neons soon as he settles in. They also seem to be quite social with eachother. And be careful, they can bite off more then they can chew if your not careful. larger shrimp and neons might pose a chokeing hazard potentially. Also a suggestion if your getting neons 'n ghost shrimp for feeders. If you can get ahold of guppies/mollies/platies You can easly set-up a home breeding production line of safe live food in an safer size range for them. at 8" my guys get a work-out to catch juvies platies. and originally put them in a tank of guppies numbering close to 50 ... for about 1 week! completely deccimated my population. learned to set-up a seperate tank for breeding feeders for them fast. my guys also go bonkers for earthworms.
 
Amazing how I can post twice about how I fully expect the Neons & shrimp to be food and still have a couple of people warn me that they're going to get eaten.

I added a bunch more floating plants (not sure what it is), and added a rock cave. The floating plants are being used, the cave is going back into the tank it came from. It never gets used.

I have a ZigZag Eel that's around 4" (as compared to the senegal's 3"). Would putting the eel in with the poly be a bad idea? I'm also thinking of putting my 3" Banjo cat in with it.
 
Eel's probably okay, my sen got on fine with my zigzag, but the banjo cat is a major choking hazard. They're spiny and don't move much. The lack of movement is an invitation to a bicher.
 
I've got it happily eating black worms and Hikari cichlid gold, sinking. I've also seen it eat NLS community pellets.

I added 4 more Neon Tetras, and a female German Gold Ram. My male normal Ram paired off with my other female German Gold Ram and my normal female Ram died of something. She seems to be getting along just fine with everyone else.

Adding the Zig Zag Eel has proven difficult. I think i'd need to completely break down the tank it's in, plants and all, in order to catch it.
 
5 Neons and about 10 Ghost Shrimp are gone, and this is with regular feeding. Growing fast and still impossible to get good pics of. The female Gold Ram is moving back to the main tank as the one there died of something. Healthy one day, Plecos feeding on the corpse the next.

I haven't spent this much time watching a fish since... I don't know. I also added a Flagtail Porthole Catfish to see how it would respond to a bigger fish, and The Senegal follows it around. I'll probably switch out the Falgtail for a normal Porthole Cat, as they get a bit bigger and will resist being food for longer. I doubt the Senegal will notice the difference, or it might be happy to have a friend that looks more like it.
 
I couldn't resist the pull of Bichirs, so I now have 3 Senegals, only one albino. It's amazing how quickly they put on size once they're fed properly. I also picked up another dozen ghost shrimp, as the tank was running low.

Now I'm beginning the planning stages for a permanent home. I'm thinking longer and wider would be better than longer and taller, but I still need to buonce a few ideas around in my head until i feel like i need outside input.

And yes, I got the fish before I could house them properly full grown. I only did this because I know of a place where i can temporarily or permanently house them if need be.
 
I feel like i'm talking to myself here, but at least it gets the thoughts down somewherere, and opens them for discussion.

I have named my Sen's. I never name my fish. Jumbo is the one i've had the longest and the good food and clean water gave him a nice growth spurt. The albino is named "Albino Frank." The newest normal is named "Teeny" because he's so much smaller than the first one I got. I'm finding myself considering dropping the cash on a Longfin normal morph. The short body Sens never really appealed to me. The only problem is that if I can convince myself a LF is ok, then there's no goof reason not to but a Platinum.

I can't believe i'm considering getting part time work to buy a $300 fish.

A tank with all the different Senegals (except the weird SB ones), with a delhezi and retropinnnis, hmmmmm,,,,,

i'm putting in job applications tomorrow. I will own a Plat Senegal.

The LFS i've been using for 4 or 5 years to feed my FW fish habit is finally having a position open up. The girl who's leaving it checked me out today, said I should get the job and that she would personally recommend me for it, I told her I had put an application in months ago, and followed up on it but they weren't hiring and most importantly, gave her my name. Everyone who works there recognizes me, and knows I know a lot about small animals. They also know that i'm polite and courteous which goes suprisingly far these days.

Wow, total derail. I'm still so blindsided by coming so close to getting the job i've wanted for years but could never find a good way in. They're a very tihjhyly knit group of employees.
 
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