Large and small bichirs together?????

[snowhnter]

Thanks all, I will just plan on keeping the small ones separate till they catch up with the others.

 

[asenarose]

My albino bichir was the same size as the others when I got it, but seems to have stopped growing. The senegal he shares the tank with is now double his size and they still seem to be getting along just fine.....

 

[irgaa]

Simple rule of thumb with predatory fish, if it can fit in their mouth there is a definite risk. especially if they're used to eating live food. I've had a 9 inch endli eat a 8 inch needle nose gar. Bichirs mouths are bigger than they sometimes look. Smaller bichirs are usually OK except with weeksi and ornates but that doesn't mean every ornate or weeksi will eat other bichirs. How often they are fed and what they are used to eating often affects their behavior

Sent from my DROID RAZR using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

Agree with this one.

 

[HybridHerp]

I keep my 15" endli with an 8" sen
When the endli was smaller, for some reason something possessed me to think it was a good idea to mix him with an EBJD that was only 2 inches
in fact, I almost watched the EBJD get eaten when the two went after the same chunck of food, the EBJD got a small little cut on his side that stayed with him for life, but they lived together for 3 years before the EBJD died at 6" and the endli got 15"
I feel like it depends upon individual fish, cause I also know that this same endli that was fine with baby cichlids ate me out of $100+ worth of rainbows, about 8 rainbows in total I believe, if not more lol

 

[snowhnter]

I pulled the ornate out and dropped her in the 75. My 7"-10" bichirs are in the 125 and the 5" ones are in the 40 fuge. Now they are all safe and happy, I hope.

 

[turtleandfishkeeperpro]

Yes I have the same thing. I have a 8/9 Inc ornate bichir and a 4,5 Inc delhezi in two separate tanks. Can I put them in the same tank or is the delhezi still a bit to small?? The tank will be yust for the two of them with no other fish yet.

 

[jaws7777]

I have always kept larger bichirs with smaller ones and never had an issues. That said it always boils down to the individual fish. I think your fine as far as predation. What i would be more concerned with is territorial aggression. Having only 2 bichirs could be a problem. Making it worse would be if the ornate is on the aggressive side (they can be known for this)

I say try it. If it doesnt work move the smaller poly out. If it were me i would try and keep it to 3 polys though.

 

[TheEelKing]

Does anyone know how an ornate bichir and a fire eel would do together in the same tank?

In the past, when I've had ornate bichirs, they've always been good friends with my fire eels, evening laying next to them and everything. Just make sure the eel is bigger. A 6" ornate bichir and a 12" fire eel would be a good combo, for instance.