i have decided a Polypterus palmas

[davidefc]

hello,i have been wanting a bichir for awhile for my 120 with mix of ca/sa cichlids.
i wanted to know any facts on these and your view on there temprament and feeding ect.
it is 20-25cm, thats what ive been told and its £28$56 good price?
i wanted to know what size fish could he eat. i have acouple of smallish fish the smallest is 1.5-2" convicts, 3" sajica, 3.5" jaguar cichlid, 3" syn cat and others. so would the bichir eat them in the night or would they be ok? if not how would the bichir do in a 20gallon for acouple of weeks/months until the others grow bigger.

in advance thanks for your tips, experiance and responces

dave

 

[beblondie]

Actually bichirs should not be kept with agressive cichlids at all-Anne

 

[davidefc]

aggressive to you mean jags,texas and stuff like that or aggressive as in all cichlids....what about FM's, sajicas and other like that

 

[Cohazard]

I have GT's, Oscars, and eventually GG's (still small right now), with my polypterus collection.

If you watch my youtube video of the ornates fighting, you'll see that the dominant GT bites one of the pelvic fins, however that's not normal behavior from him. On top of that, you can see it's not an aggressive bite, but rather an 'exploratory' bite. No harm done.

I think part of my success is because I have 3 good size male GT's, and they keep the aggression amongst themselves for the most part, although the dominant GT is starting to fight with mah blue dempsey an average of once a week so far.

I've never seen any of my cichlids (or the GG's) damage, pick-on, etc... any of my polypterus.

As long as you avoid the glass bangers, you should be okay.


My GG's are only growing out in my tank, once they hit 12" (about half their adult size) I'm moving them to an outdoor pond, because they will be glass bangers some day.


HTH

 

[Merbeast]

I keep mine with jewel cichlids, but I would avoid the more aggressive cichlids. Perhaps because I have 5 jewels, they keep the aggression between themselves as well. **BUT** I added the jewels AFTER the polys were in there, so who knows how your situation would work out.

If in doubt, don't put a poly in with cichlids (as Beblondie suggested). It's not worth the health of your fish.

 

[davidefc]

haha i havent gota tank without cichlids unless he can in a marine tank